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During the early 1830s, Holmes was enrolled at Harvard Medical School, but also sought tuition privately with Dr. James Jackson. Of Holmes, Jackson said to his son, “He can tell you much that is interesting. Do not mind his apparent frivolity and you…

During the course of his extensive travels through Europe and America, J. G. Spurzheim maintained a vigorous correspondence with his wife, Honorine, describing the people he met, the hospitals, prisons, and schools he visited, and the spread of…

In 1850, after some years of dormancy, the Boston Phrenological Society's collection of casts and skulls was sold to Dr. John Collins Warren and later added to the specimens of the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical School. This is Dr.…

This unsigned obituary is one of several articles devoted to J. G. Spurzheim printed in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal at this time. Note the prominent medical figures, including Drs. John Collins Warren, James Jackson, Walter Channing, and…

While on tour in America, Spurzheim made extensive notes on the scenery and institutions of the country, contrasting the conditions of New York, New Haven, Hartford, and Boston. These notes may have been intended for publication but were left…

This ticket is inserted at the flyleaf of a copy of the third American edition of Spurzheim’s treatise, Phrenology, or the Doctrine of the Mental Phenomena (Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1834) and was issued for his popular course of lectures…

Like the Alvan Fisher oil portrait, this silhouette of J. G. Spurzheim appears to have been produced during his final years on his tour through the United States. The object in his hand is, of course, a skull.

Published while Spurzheim was touring in America, the Outlines of Phrenology was phenomenally popular, passing through four separate editions by 1834. The Outlines gives a brief overview of the theory behind phrenology, discusses the basic…

Produced just after his sudden death, this portrait of Spurzheim holding a symbolical head is said to be one of the best productions from the studio of Boston painter Alvan Fisher. Dr. J. Mason Warren, the son of John Collins Warren, purchased the…

This English satiric print illustrates some of the absurdities associated with phrenology, as the traits and marked skulls of dogs, birds, and horses are treated on a par with humans. The phrenologist "Doctor S." may be intended to represent Johann…