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- Title
- Hardy, Sylvia.
- Description
- Full-length portrait of Miss Hardy standing beside two unnamed men, perhaps as a means of depicting her extraordinary height., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 21 (May, 1855), p. 120., Miss Hardy, known during her lifetime as the Maine Giantess, was exhibited in P.T. Barnum’s American Museum during the mid-nineteenth century as a nearly eight-foot tall curiosity., “Miss Hardy is now thirty years of age. She has grown about seven inches since she was twenty-one, and is nearly eight feet high at the present moment. She weighs three hundred and forty-six pounds, is massively proportioned, robust, matronly in appearance, symmetrical in figure, but inclined to stoop, (as most tall people are,) a habit acquired in her native village, where her gigantic height subjected her to a scrutiny on the part of strangers, most annoying to her bashful nature. Her features are large. The expression of her face, if not handsome, is amiable ; her disposition is mild and gentle to a pleasing degree. Her voice is somewhat coarse, but not unmusical. Her movements are easy and graceful ; although, having never before left her village home, she is as yet unsophisticated in fashionable ways, and moves and acts with a timidity that a little more acquaintance with public life will readily remove… She certainly is one of the most wonderful natural phenomena of the age.”--P. 120.
- Date
- [1855?]
- Location
- http://www.librarycompany.org/extraordinarywoman/dwarf.htm
- Title
- Benjamin, Sarah.
- Description
- Waist-length seated portrait of Mrs. Benjamin wearing bonnet, holding staff., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 20 (Nov., 1854), p. 101., "She was with the army all through the Revolutionary War. She was in Albany during the hard winter of 1780, and at West Point two or three years, while the army was stationed there ; and when it left under General Washington, she followed. Her business was cooking and washing for her husband and other soldiers. She speaks distinctly of riding horseback through the streets of Philadelphia on the way to Yorktown and also of embarking on board ship at the head of Elk river, and of cruising down Chesapeake Bay, and landing (I think) at James River.”--P. 101., Also known as Sarah Osborn.
- Date
- [1854?]
- Title
- L.W.
- Description
- Bust-length portrait of the criminal., In Sampson, M. B. Rationale of crime and its appropriate treatment; being a treatise on criminal jurisprudence considered in relation to cerebral organization. Edited by Eliza W. Farnham (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 162., “My acknowledgements are due to the officers of the Penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island for their politeness in furnishing me with facilities for taking the daguerreotypes, and to Mr. L. N. Fowler for aiding me in the selection of cases; nor must I omit to name Mr. Edward Serrell, who was obliging enough to take the outline drawings for me; or Mr. Brady, to whose indefatigable patience with a class of the most difficult of all sitters, is due the advantage of a very accurate set of daguerreotypes.” -- Introductory preface by Mrs. Farnham, p. xx., “L.W. is a criminal who has long been notorious in New York for her depravity and abandonment of character. She has been under arrest innumerable times, and when not in prison leads a most profligate and shameless life. She is obstinate but kind withal, and very impulsive and ardent in all her emotions. Her temperament is sanguine-nervous, highly excitable, and unrestrained. In her head benevolence is well developed, but the whole moral region beside is exceedingly small. The drawing indicates extreme narrowness and smallness of the whole coronal region.”--P. 162.
- Date
- [1846?]
- Title
- D.M.
- Description
- Bust-length portrait of the criminal., In Sampson, M. B. Rationale of crime and its appropriate treatment; being a treatise on criminal jurisprudence considered in relation to cerebral organization. Edited by Eliza W. Farnham (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 159., “My acknowledgements are due to the officers of the Penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island for their politeness in furnishing me with facilities for taking the daguerreotypes, and to Mr. L. N. Fowler for aiding me in the selection of cases; nor must I omit to name Mr. Edward Serrell, who was obliging enough to take the outline drawings for me; or Mr. Brady, to whose indefatigable patience with a class of the most difficult of all sitters, is due the advantage of a very accurate set of daguerreotypes.” -- Introductory preface by Mrs. Farnham, p. xx., “D.M. has been an inmate of the county prisons of New York, a greater part of the last seven or eight years. She is notoriously abandoned and profligate; and for the last few years has added intemperance to her other vices. She seems utterly lost to all sense of decency and to every moral tie of humanity. With all this degradation she possesses a good mind, with much shrewdness and quickness of perception. The drawing indicates a large development of propensity with fair intellect, but a total destitution of moral endowment. The scanty development of the coronal region of her head is very striking.”--P. 159.
- Date
- [1846?]
- Title
- White, Irene C.
- Description
- Shoulder-length portrait of the educator in profile, with hair braided around crown of head., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 31 (Jan., 1860), p. 1., “She has been a ‘substitute,’ an efficient teacher to thousands, among whom not a few are known to honor and fame. She has achieved what no other woman in America has done, viz., been elected teacher of elocution in several literary and scientific institutions of note in our country.”--P. 2.
- Date
- [1860?]
- Title
- Clifton, Ada, 1835-1891.
- Description
- Waist-length seated portrait of the actress holding a book., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 29 (Feb., 1859), p. 25., Ernestina Katherine Louise Marie Ritter, who went by the stage name Ada Clifton, was a popular actress in the mid-nineteenth century.
- Date
- [1859?]
- Title
- Burns, Ella Virginia.
- Description
- Full-length portrait of the young girl holding her hands across her waist., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 29 (Jan., 1859), p. 1., At the age of four Ella Burns was a national celebrity, renowned for her captivating public readings and poetry recitations., “Without ever having been taught spelling or the alphabet, but having herself picked up a knowledge of words by intuitive quickness of eye, [Ella] takes any book of poetry presented to her and reads verses she has never before seen, with a cadence and a pronunciation which do the fullest justice to the sense and rhythm.”--P. 2.
- Date
- [1859?]
- Title
- Bloomer, Amelia Jenks, 1818-1894.
- Description
- Waist-length portrait of the reformer., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 17 (March, 1853), p. 52., Mrs. Amelia Jenks Bloomer was a suffragist and temperance advocate whose name came to be associated with the radical new short dress style for women., Another portrait appears in: The water-cure journal, v. 12, no. 4 (Oct., 1851), p.96.
- Date
- [1853?]
- Title
- Patton, Abby Hutchinson, 1829-1892.
- Description
- Waist-length portrait of the singer, seated., In Phrenological and physiological almanac for 1848, (New York, 1847), p. 39., Mrs. Abby Hutchinson Patton sang with her siblings as contralto for the Hutchinson Family Singers, a popular antebellum musical group. The Hutchinsons were supporters of numerous reform issues, abolitionism in particular. Cf. Gac, Scott. Singing for freedom (New Haven, 2007)., Another portrait (with three other family members) appears in the People's journal, vol. 1, no. 17 (Apr. 25, 1846), p. 225.
- Date
- [1847?]
- Title
- C.B.
- Description
- Bust-length portrait of the criminal, in profile., In Sampson, M. B. Rationale of crime and its appropriate treatment; being a treatise on criminal jurisprudence considered in relation to cerebral organization. Edited by Eliza W. Farnham (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 166., “My acknowledgements are due to the officers of the Penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island for their politeness in furnishing me with facilities for taking the daguerreotypes, and to Mr. L. N. Fowler for aiding me in the selection of cases; nor must I omit to name Mr. Edward Serrell, who was obliging enough to take the outline drawings for me; or Mr. Brady, to whose indefatigable patience with a class of the most difficult of all sitters, is due the advantage of a very accurate set of daguerreotypes.” -- Introductory preface by Mrs. Farnham, p. xx., “C.G. is a German woman, noted for her obliging, submissive disposition and the kindness of her feelings ; but exceedingly wanting in self-respect and regard for the rights of others. She is now under imprisonment for larceny. The head shows large benevolence, with exceedingly deficient conscientiousness, self-esteem, and firmness.”--P. 166.
- Date
- [1846?]
- Title
- Monk, Maria, d. 1850.
- Description
- Bust-length portrait in profile of Maria Monk., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 11 (July, 1849), p. 314., Maria Monk, supposed author of Awful disclosures of Maria Monk, or, the Hidden secrets of a nun's life in a convent exposed, claimed to have suffered sexual abuse as a nun in a convent in Montreal. Though the book detailing her allegations sold well, the veracity of her claims was doubted almost immediately after its publication, and contemporary scholars regard her story as false., The article accompanying this portrait references the recent death of Maria Monk, suggesting that she in fact died in 1849.
- Date
- [1849?]
- Title
- Cornell, S. S. (Sophia S.).
- Description
- Waist-length portrait of the educator, seated, wearing bonnet., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 27 (June, 1858), p. 88., “Miss Sophia S. Cornell, the distinguished author of Cornell’s admirable series of School Geographies, and who is extensively known as one of the most successful educators and teachers at present enlisted in the great cause of popular Education, was born in New London, Conn., and is of American parentage.”--P. 86, Robert Price obtained a patent in Worcester, Mass., on May 5, 1857, for the process of producing photographic images on wood ; cf. American phrenological journal, vol. 27 (Feb. 1858), p. 24.
- Date
- [1858?]
- Title
- T.Z.
- Description
- Bust-length portrait of the criminal., In Sampson, M. B. Rationale of crime and its appropriate treatment; being a treatise on criminal jurisprudence considered in relation to cerebral organization. Edited by Eliza W. Farnham (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 160., “My acknowledgements are due to the officers of the Penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island for their politeness in furnishing me with facilities for taking the daguerreotypes, and to Mr. L. N. Fowler for aiding me in the selection of cases; nor must I omit to name Mr. Edward Serrell, who was obliging enough to take the outline drawings for me; or Mr. Brady, to whose indefatigable patience with a class of the most difficult of all sitters, is due the advantage of a very accurate set of daguerreotypes.” -- Introductory preface by Mrs. Farnham, p. xx., “The drawing indicates a large development of the perceptive, the mechanical and musical powers, with excessive secretiveness and destructiveness. But the most striking feature of her head is the extreme shortness from individuality to philoprogenitiveness. Her impatience and restlessness prevented the side view from being taken….”--P. 160.
- Date
- [1846?]
- Title
- Davis, Paulina W. (Paulina Wright), 1813-1876.
- Description
- Bust-length portrait of the reformer with her right hand at her chin., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 18 (July, 1853), p. 12., Mrs. Paulina Wright Davis was a prominent abolitionist and suffragist as well as a lecturer in various scientific fields, such as anatomy and physiology.
- Date
- [1853?]
- Title
- Booth, Mary L. (Mary Louise), 1831-1889.
- Description
- Waist-length seated portrait of the writer., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 31 (May, 1860), p. 72., Mary Booth was an author, translator, and editor. Largely self-taught, she wrote and edited dozens of works, and served as editor of Harper’s Bazaar.
- Date
- [1860?]
- Title
- Drunk on cold water Admiral D.D. Porter, General A.H. Terry, Sherman--Grant--Lee--and other distinguished persons, by impression will be present at the wonderful exhibitions in the large saloon of the Assembly Buildings: on Thursday, Friday and Saturday eve'gs, January 26th, 27th and 28th, 1865--the last 3 nights "Fun blended with instruction!" and every one delighted, by the humorous lecturer, Prof. B. Brown Williams, M.D. the original psychologist, (his first appearance for ten years in this city.) At each entertainment, Dr. B. Brown Williams performs and lectures with gentlemen from the audience! and by a very mysterious influence, causes them to loose their individuality, ... Phrenology: will be brought into requisition, in the feeling of bumps--dispositions phrenologically explained. Spiritualism and ghost seeing! will be treated psychologically, in the light! ... The doctor's stay is limited to Saturday only, most positively. Cards of admission, (one) gentleman, 30 cents Admitting (two) a lady and gentleman, 50 cents Doors open quarter-before 7 o'clock. Lecture commencing at quarter-before 8. Tickets can be procured during the day at ticket office, from 10, A.M., to 12 M., and from 2 to 4, P.M
- Description
- Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
- Creator
- Williams, B. Brown
- Date
- [1865]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare PB 1865 Williams (6)5761.F.30a (McAllister)
- Title
- Farnham, Eliza W. (Eliza Wood), 1815-1864.
- Description
- Shoulder-length portrait of Mrs. Farnham in profile, wearing eyeglasses., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 25 (June, 1857), p. 133., Mrs. Eliza Farnham was an author, a prison matron at Sing Sing, and a feminist reformer. She was a champion of phrenology and assisted Marmaduke Sampson in illustrating the phrenologically-based Rationale of crime (New York, 1857) by providing him with subjects from Sing Sing., “Fig. 8 shows great vigor and compass of thought, ability to grasp and conquer subjects requiring steady logical power, yet the two points referred to, though they show the chief differences between the two, are not the only strong points of the portrait under consideration. The head rises high, and is long and broad on the top, showing strong moral sentiment, firmness and dignity combined with prudence, taste, and the qualities which give refinement, elevation, and purity of mind. She is one of the strongest female thinkers and writers in America ; and in officiating as matron of the State Prison at Sing Sing for several years, and also in many other spheres of action, she has shown her stamina of character and strength of mind. The perceptive organs are not large enough for a good balance of intellect.”--P. 133., Another portrait appears in: Phrenological and physiological almanac, for 1849 (New York, 1848), p. 31.
- Date
- [1857?]
- Title
- Green, Sarah Margru Kinson, d. 1858.
- Description
- Bust-length portrait of Sarah Margru Kinson Green., Sarah Margru Kinson Green, a child captive onboard the Amistad slave ship, returned to the United States to study at Oberlin College., “This girl, one of the Amistad captives, called in her native language Margru, meaning black snake, called at our office for an examination, while a stranger to us. She was described as possessing strong friendship, independence, perseverance, energy, and unusual intellectual powers ; remarkable memory, and the faculty of acquiring education. We afterward learned that she had been educated at the Oberlin Institute, in Ohio, and excelled in all branches of study, and was one of the first scholars in the institution in mathematics and superior sciences ; remarkable for memory and native intelligence. She has gone to her native land as a missionary. The forehead is broad and high, and particularly prominent in the center, in the region of eventuality, and the whole head is large, sustained by a vigorous constitution. She is far superior to Africans generally. The same is true of the majority of the Amistad captives, particularly so of Cinquez, the leader. Dignity, independence, and scope of mind were such as to do honor to individuals of any nation.”--P. 231., In the American phrenological journal, vol. 12 (1850), p. 231., Another portrait appears in The illustrated phrenological almanac for 1851 (1850), p. 30.
- Date
- [1850?]
- Title
- C.P.
- Description
- Bust-length portrait of the criminal., In Sampson, M. B. Rationale of crime and its appropriate treatment; being a treatise on criminal jurisprudence considered in relation to cerebral organization. Edited by Eliza W. Farnham (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 158., “My acknowledgements are due to the officers of the Penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island for their politeness in furnishing me with facilities for taking the daguerreotypes, and to Mr. L. N. Fowler for aiding me in the selection of cases; nor must I omit to name Mr. Edward Serrell, who was obliging enough to take the outline drawings for me; or Mr. Brady, to whose indefatigable patience with a class of the most difficult of all sitters, is due the advantage of a very accurate set of daguerreotypes.” -- Introductory preface by Mrs. Farnham, p. xx., "C.P., a half-breed Indian and negro woman, under confinement for the fourth time. She has been twice imprisoned for petit, and once for grand larceny, and once for assault and battery with a knife. During one of her terms of confinement she attacked her keeper with a carving-knife, and he was compelled to fell her with a loaded cane. When excited she exhibits the most uncontrollable fury, and is always disposed to be offensive, aggressive, and more or less violent. In her head destructiveness is enormously developed, with large secretiveness and caution, and very defective benevolence and moral organs generally.”--P. 158.
- Date
- [1846?]
- Title
- Hurlburt triplets.
- Description
- Three-quarter length portrait of the triplets, seated side by side. All three wear bonnets and hold their hands in their laps in a similar manner., In The American phrenological journal, vol. 28 (Sept., 1858), p. 40., “These persons resemble each other very strongly, more especially Mrs. Bushnell and Grennell. Though it is not always the case that twins and triplets resemble each other in appearance and character, yet it is more common for them to do so than it is for those of single birth, because the parents in cases of twins transmit characteristics to the progeny from one given condition of body and of mind….”--P. 40.
- Date
- [1858?]
- Location
- http://www.librarycompany.org/extraordinarywoman/age.htm
- Title
- Women's portraits in A new system of phrenology.
- Description
- Five separate shoulder-length portraits on a plate illustrating the location of various ipseals, or self-regarding organs., In Grimes, J. Stanley. A new system of phrenology (Buffalo, 1839), plate preceding p. 213., It is likely that the Mrs. Rapp featured in the plate is the wife of George Rapp, founder and leader of the Harmony Society, a utopian religious group., Red Jacket, a Seneca Indian orator and chief, married twice. Featured is either Aanjedek, whom he divorced, or Awaogoh, whom he went on to remarry.
- Date
- [1839?]