Phrenological bust by LN FowlerPhrenological bust by LN FowlerThe History of Phrenology on the Web

by John van Wyhe


Phrenological images

The evolution of phrenological images 1800-1880

This page provides links to over 100 phrenological images, from portraits of important phrenologists to plaster casts of their heads taken for phrenological study. Click on each image to view an enlargement. New images are periodically added.

The first phrenological images were engravings of particular skulls with the organs marked on them. Then in 1815 life-like busts appeared- but these were representations of an abstract head and not of a particular specimen. Later more extravagant busts with pictures and different colours were made.

Engraving from the Philosophical Magazine, 1802. This engraving later appeared, transposed, on the title page of The Weekly Medico-Chirurgical & Philosophical Magazine for Feb.1823. See Cooter, 1984, p.30.

Martens, Leichtfassliche Darstellung der Theorie des Gehirn- und Schädelbaues und der daraus entspringenden physiognomischen und psychologischen Folgerungen des Herrn Dr. Gall in Wien, 1803.- Martens, Leichtfassliche Darstellung der Theorie des Gehirn- und Schädelbaues und der daraus entspringenden physiognomischen und psychologischen Folgerungen des Herrn Dr. Gall in Wien, 1803.

These two skull engravings are from a German pamphlet. Martins, 1803. 35 organs are delineated.

Engraving from Arnold, 1805.

German engraving from Arnold, 1805.

Diagram from Blöde, 1806.

German engraving of skull according to Gall from Blöde, 1806.

Spurzheim
Frontispiece to Spurzheim's The Physiognomical System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim. London, 1815. The first published use of a head instead of a skull.

Frontispiece to Spurzheim's Outlines of phrenology. London, 1827.

Broussais

Engraving from Francois-Joseph-Victor Broussais, Cours de Phrénologie. 1836.

Frontispiece to Combe's Lectures on phrenology, 1839.

Combe, Lectures on phrenology. 1839.

Lundie

Titlepage of H. Lundie's Phrenological Mirror. 1844

Combe

Frontispiece to George Combe's System of Phrenology, 1853 edn.

From Gustav Scheve's Phrenologische Bilder. Leipzig, 1855.

American Phrenological Journal

Cover of the American Phrenological Journal, 1848 (from Stern, Heads & Headlines, 1971).

Philoprogenitiveness Large
Philoprogenitiveness Small
Philoprogenitiveness Medium size

The organ of Philoprogenitiveness (2. parenting) From Scheve, phrenologische Reisebilder, 1863.

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Reproductions of this bust c. 1865 by L.N. Fowler, are sold as souvenirs today.

Diagram from W. Mattieu Williams, A Vindication of Phrenology. London, 1894.

Gustav Scheve

Gustav Scheve- the foremost German phrenologist. Note the bust with different groups of faculties coloured.

Goethe life mask

The (only) life bust of Goethe made at Gall's behest. Photos from: Möbius, 'Franz Joseph Gall', in Ausgewählte Werke, 1905

Additional images at this site are found on the following pages:

-Franz Joseph Gall.
-Johann Gaspar Spurzheim.
-The Combe brothers.

-Engravings of the brain from Spurzheim's Anatomy of the brain, 1826.
-Spurzheim, Phrenology: or the doctrine of the mental phenomena. Philadelphia, 1908.
-Combe, A system of phrenology. 2 vols.
-Combe, Constitution of man, Chapter V.
-Lundie, The phrenological mirror or delineation book.
-What was phrenology?.
-Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.
-The four Temperaments.
-Ridiculing Phrenology.
-Carpenter, Principles of mental physiology, 1874, Appendix.
-Map of Gall's European lecture tour 1805-7.

The next page is : Chronology of phrenology.

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© John van Wyhe 1999-2011. Materials on this website may not be reproduced without permission except for use in teaching or non-published presentations, papers/theses.