Entry on Johann Gaspar Spurzheim in A Descriptive Catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum

Entry on Johann Gaspar Spurzheim in A Descriptive Catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum

Spurzheim, J. G. (Johann Gaspar), 1776-1832

Jackson, J. B. S. (John Barnard Swett), 1806-1879

Warren Anatomical Museum

Phrenology

Pseudoscience

This text is the official published catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum. The Spurzheim cast is listed in the "Third Division" of the 1870 catalogue, which is entitled "Miscellany." The catalogue's first division is entitled "Healthy" anatomy and it's second division is "Morbid" or diseased anatomy. Miscellany is broken up into four series. The Spurzheim cast is in "Series XLIV" or "Phrenology." The other three series in Miscellany are "Zoology," "Mementos," and "National Skulls." Division Three is the smallest of the three divisions, equaling 478 out of the 3681 cases (13% of the 1870 total). Series XLIV is derived from the collections of the Boston Phrenological Society, which John Collins Warren purchased in the late 1840s and donated to the Warren Anatomical Museum in 1847. Many of the Phrenological Society's head and skull casts originally belonged to Spurzheim. The skull cast of Spurzheim is an exception with this larger collection. It was cast and donated in 1848 by Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff. Shurtleff was a graduate of Harvard Medical School and was the curator for the phrenological cabinet of the Boston Phrenological Society. Warren himself had the actual skull of Spurzheim in his Warren Museum of Natural History on Chestnut Street in Boston. The cranium was later donated to the Warren Anatomical Museum, where it still resides.

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum contains the entry of Dr. Johann Gaspar Spurzheim's skull cast in the 1870 publication.

Jackson, J. B. S. (John Barnard Swett), 1806-1879

John Ford

1870

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Accessing collections in the Warren Anatomical Museum and the Warren Anatomical Museum archive requires advanced notice. Please submit a request to Public Services at chm@hms.harvard.edu to access the displayed item

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum, 1870, 1870. Warren Anatomical Museum Records, Series 00012: II. Collection Registration Records, 1835-1996, undated., 1835-1996,r, box 10 folder 2, page 699-707

An online guide to the Warren Anatomical Museum collection is available.

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1 Descriptive Catalog (2 pages)

English

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