History of Phrenology

Archive Based Research Project

First off, what even is Phrenology?

The pseudoscientific study of the skull’s contours to determine a person’s character.

In the early 1800s, Franz J. Gall theorized that bumps on the skull indicated larger areas of the brain underneath. He then developed the theory that by ‘measuring’ these skull contours we could learn about a person’s proclivity to steal, secretiveness, ability to play instruments, and much more. The theory was finally debunked in 2017 and is one of history's most infamous cases of pop pseudoscience. Learn more about phrenology and my research process below.

Here we have Franz Joseph Gall. He is responsible for the development and original distribution of phrenology.

Phrenology was widely popular in the 1800 and 1900s. It was talked about in salons, magazines, newspapers, boardrooms, and lecture halls across the world. Three main men founded, taught, and promoted phrenology. On the bottom, we have Franz Joseph Ga

Welcome to phrenology, the wacky, pseudoscientific study of human nature. First theorized in the early 1800s it was believed that by feeling the bumps on one's skull you were feeling the contours of a human brain. A bigger pump meant a bigger brain r

This project focuses on the lives and contributions of three men, the inventor Franz Gall, the American teacher O.S. Fowler, and the religious figure John Miller.

The Project

The focus of the project was more on the reception of phrenology. It did not follow the scientific process, and ‘readings’ were pretty much left up to the whims of the phrenologist. No true measurements were taken besides feeling the skull with the fingertips. If a phrenologist told you you were a liar, you better believe him because there was no way to dispute it. If a patient argued against a reading, the phrenologist could argue that they had uncovered your true colors, thus phrenology was unfalsifiable. That is until modern MRI machines became available.

This project also dove into the religious implications of phrenology. Depending on when in time you look at it, the Church either hated or loved phrenology. My project focused on the latter, specifically the Latter-Day Saints. Phrenology was huge in the early days of Mormonism. Early church leaders received and published their readings, which often confirmed they were men of god. Phrenological journals were often passed out in church.

Phrenology was debunked in 2017 with the use of MRI machines. Scientists at Oxford matched the areas Gall theorized with the personalities of participants and then measured skull and brain contours using MRIs. This study took thousands of participants, state-of-the-art technology, funding, and multiple investigators. Can we blame Gall for not having these things at his disposal? I hope that after reading a bit about his story here, we can move away from the immediate disregard for his integrity as a scientist simply because he was wrong. His attempt brought us closer to our modern-day understanding of the brain and will allow future scientists to learn from his successes and failures. His contribution to the field of Psychology is far more than just a theory gone wrong.

It is important to note that while phrenology was disproved, it was not fully wrong. There is a modern-day theory called localized brain function which argues that certain parts of the brain do have specific functions. Gall, Fowler, and Miller set the groundwork for modern psychology. The corresponding brain regions and faculties can be viewed in the image above taken from the 2017 study. PC: 43

This is a chart from the study. It shows some of the faculties they focused on and how they measured them. Since they didn’t have any murderers in the study, they measured destructiveness by beef intake. PC: 43

While phrenology did eventually die out due to lack of evidence and conflicting parties it still remains a popular theory. It is taught in introductory psychology classes and was finally fully put to rest in 2017. A study using predefined personality markers and MRI machines disproved phrenology and each faculty outlined. Swipe to see MRI images from the study. PC: 53, 43

Lastly, we have Time, Tune, and Number. The phrenological faculties were deemed scientific and were hard to dispute. If you felt your reading was wrong, phrenologists would argue that the skull showed your true nature. phrenology’s true downfall was its lack of falsifiability. PC: 14, 37, 13

Here we see Constructiveness or creativity, Self-esteem or vanity, and Cautiousness or shyness. PC: 5, 7, 25

Here we have Amatativeness or amount of sexuality, Destructiveness or desire for murder, Secretiveness, and lastly, Acquisitiveness or tendency to steal. PC: 39, 6, 27, 26

While there were eventually 35 faculties, we will focus only on a few. Here we see the faculties of Philoprogenitiveness or the ability to care for children, Concentrativeness or amount of emotion, Adhesiveness or desire for friendship, and lastly, Combativeness or enjoyment of fighting. PC: 42, 36, 38, 15

Many prominent religious figures were prompted by their followers to get and publish their phrenological readings. This was a way to ensure they were right for the job and had large enough required faculties and small enough undesirable ones. The first in this series is the reading of Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of the LDS church. Swipe to see Joseph Smith's, founder of the LDS, and then Brigham Young's, second president of the LDS and Governor of Utah. Smith’s and Young’s were posted in a prominent Mormon newspaper titled the Nauvoo Wasp PC: 11, 12

This project changed the way I approach archive-based research. Prior to this class, the library and most databases seemed inaccessible. In my searches, I was frequently hit with paywalls and limited or irrelevant results. Learning how to properly search a digital archive and who to reach out to helped this project go far deeper than expected. The best find was baptism records from the 1700s. It is wild to think that these records are accessible and preserved online. A big, giant, huge thanks to all librarians and digitizers who spend their lives preserving these would-be lost parts of history.

What I learned

Books

I referenced many books for this project, most written by inventors and teachers of phrenology like Franz Gall and O.S. Fowler. These helped define the origins and tenets of phrenology.
Librarians

The University of Washington has a state-of-the-art library with incredibly knowledgable librarians. I reached out to a few of them describing my project and documents i was having trouble finding. they quickly responded with helpful tips and documents i would not have been able to find without their expertise.
Newspapers

Newspapers were one of my greatest sources. I used them to learn about public perception and understanding of phrenology. Many phrenological readings were also printed in Mormon newspapers. There were also quite a few phrenology papers printed in the 1800’s which signal its popularity.
Letters

Using the BYU and UW archives I was able to find letters about phrenology from key players like the Attorney General of Pennsylvania in 1845. This allowed me to add in perspectives of people from the times of peak phrenology popularity.
Certificates

In order to create a thorough history, I started with the early lives of key figures. I found birth certificates, baptism and school records, marriage licenses, and more to create a full picture of these lives.
Images

Since the final product was an Instagram, visuals were key for creating an engaging product. I used many databases, including the National Portrait Gallery to find relevant images.