Articles

The Life of S. G. Morton (1799–1851)

Samuel George Morton (1799–1851) was a successful physician, anatomy professor, and active member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Morton is most remembered for his collection of human skulls.

A History of Craniology in Race Science and Physical Anthropology

© 2018, Paul Wolff Mitchell. Posted by permission from the author.
From 2018 to 2024, this text was posted on the Penn Museum Web page.

Craniology is the study of the skull. In the last few hundred years, craniological methods, like measuring the angle of the face, the size of the braincase, or the ratio of the length to the breadth of the head, have been used to classify people into racial groupings, to make claims about alleged differences in intelligence, and to study human variation.