Antiquarian Books

Rare and antique books are my passion, I enjoy talking to others who love books and reading.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Reading The Bumps on Your Head

Phrenology the science of reading the bumps, dips and shape of your head to determine personality and intellect. A very popular psuedo-science in the mid 1800's phrenology was embraced by the rich and famous of the day. Julia Ward Howe, Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, Horace Greeley and the Bronte's to name just a few. Phrenology, ruled much of the country's thinking regarding what motivated human behavior. It was applied to several facets of daily life and appeared in the writing of the day.
The primary phenologists in America were the Fowlers. They built an institute to cash in on the phrenology craze they set up the famous phrenological publishing house of L.N Fowler & Co; and designed and sold their phrenology head, a china head on which the phrenological faculties were indicated. Next to the Institute was the Phrenological Cabinet, nicknamed "Golgotha," which housed a huge collection of skulls, used both for research purposes and as a museum open to the public. It was often P.T. Barnum's most serious competition for tourists.
But alas Phrenology, like most fads, eventually became unfashionable among the rich and fampus who had previously espoused it. But you can read your head and others to determine who you should marry and whether an employee is going to work out. Come check it out Fowler's Practical Phrenology.

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