Phrenological chart with portraits of historical figures and illustrations of skulls exhibiting racial characteristics. Lithograph by G. E. Madeley, authored by C. Donovan, c. 1850.

Date:
c. 1850
Reference:
27927i
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view Phrenological chart with portraits of historical figures and illustrations of skulls exhibiting racial characteristics. Lithograph by G. E. Madeley, authored by C. Donovan, c. 1850.

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Credit

Phrenological chart with portraits of historical figures and illustrations of skulls exhibiting racial characteristics. Lithograph by G. E. Madeley, authored by C. Donovan, c. 1850. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

Three perspectives of skulls in centre showing phrenological classifications of the faculties of the brain. Three busts at top, left to right: Johann Christoph Spurzheim, Franz Joseph Gall and George Combe. Portraits, from top left downwards, then top right downwards: "Scott. Napoleon. Lord Bacon. Byron. Franklin. Shakspeare". Skulls from middle left anti-clockwise: "Caucasian. Mongolian. Negro. Cat. Ouran-outang. Idiot. Baboon. Dog. New Hollander. India. Carib."

Publication/Creation

London (356 Strand) : H. Renshaw, c. 1850 (3 Wellington St., Strand : Madeley litho.)

Physical description

1 print : lithograph ; border 49.6 x 36.4 cm

Lettering

Coombs' new phrenological chart. Revised and corrected by C. Donovan. Principal of the London Phrenological Institution, 371, Strand ...

Reference

Wellcome Collection 27927i

Creator/production credits

Cornelius Donovan was "a 'practical' professor of phrenology [in the] 1840s-1870s ... He established the London School of Phrenology/London Phrenological Institute (Feb 1840), Strand (later Trafalgar Square)" (R. Cooter, Phrenology in the British Isles, London 1989, p. 101). This chart follows Combe's system almost exactly, and includes a section on the influence of the size of the skull under each 'faculty' heading

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