Bibliography

Publications written by Morton

Samuel George Morton was a physician and an anatomy professor who also studied invertebrate paleontology, human racial variation, and general biology. The listing below presents his major publication on these topics. His personal letters and notes are also housed at: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Library of Drexel University, The American Philosophical Society, The National Library of Scotland, The Pennsylvania Historical Society, and Princeton University Library.

Publications about Morton’s life and research, 1850s – 1910s

Morton was a polite and affable man who died at the age of 52, when he was still serving as the president of the Academy of Natural Sciences. In the years following his death, he was eulogized by a number of his colleagues and admirers who published articles memorializing him. However, many of these articles were written by people who were advocates for certain ideas like phrenology or race supremacy, and so his eulogists often included only the information about Morton that supported their respective views. Modern readers should therefore be skeptical when reading his admirer’s remembrances of Morton.

Notable publications citing Morton’s craniological and race research, 1830s – 1920s

During his lifetime, Morton’s measurements of skull were cited in publications as either insightful or misguided, depending on the opinion of the author. After his death, Morton’s views of race and anthropology generally fell out of favor among leading scholars, largely because Morton’s refuted evolution and asserted that Native Americans were not related to the people of far eastern Siberia. However, during the last decades of the 19^th century, Morton’s datasets listing the facial angles and cranial capacities of the skulls in his collection were periodically cited alongside similar measurements published by other researchers.

Publications by Morton’s supporters and critics, 1830s–1860s

Morton was conducting his research into racial variation at a time when that topic was a pressing issue among scholars, politicians, and general public. During his life, the enslavement of West African’s was not only legal, but served as a major economic component of powerful maritime nations like Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and eventually the United States. At the same time, European and New World nations were actively seizing lands inhabited by indigenous peoples, while the United States was annexing parts of northern Mexico whose inhabitants were tri-racial. Although most western governments regarded white supremacy as an acceptable policy, a growing number of activist and influential scientists, including some of Morton close associates, were abolitionists or anti race-supremacists who sought to change the accepted norms. The following documents were written by those of Moron’s era who supported or refuted Morton findings, often while arguing against or in favor of slavery or race supremacy.

Significant publications on race and craniology, 1740s – 1920s

The first scholar to document that human skulls took differing shapes was the 16^th century Belgian anatomist Vesalius. The notion that different ethnic groups had characteristic skull shapes appears in the 1743 writings of De Fisher. It was Enlightenment Era anatomists who established the study of skulls and ethnicity as a respectable field of scholarly inquiry. However, skulls and race were also discussed in popular books and articles written by ill-informed popular authors like Meiners, White, and Gobineau. Although these authors had no training or experience in human anatomy or anthropology, their works significantly influenced later perceptions of racial variation.

Histories addressing Morton’s research and scientific racism, 1930s to today

Morton’s research was of limited interest to anthropologist or historians during the first half of the 20^th century. In was only in 1960 that the historian William Stanton wrote The Leopard’s Spots, which presented the first in depth evaluation of Morton and his research. Since then, historians have addressed Morton in a number of publications dealing with the pioneers of physical anthropology, the history of 19^th century “race science,” and the origins of racism in modern world. To date, Stanton’s book remains the most thorough examination of Morton currently available.

Modern research on Morton and his skull collection from 1980 to today

According to available records, there were no authors who published any research based on an examination of the Morton skulls between the years 1862 and 1988. However, the 21^st century has witnessed a renewed interest in the collection as an extremely rare collection of skulls from the mid-19^th century and earlier. Modern scholars using the latest technology can now examine the skulls to better understand not just the history of Morton’s era, but also the lives of the people whose remains are part of the collection. Indeed, the story of the Morton collection is not simply about Morton, but also about the life stories of the individuals that make up the collection, who have been overlooked for far too long.

Publications on Morton and racial bias in science, 1970s to today.

In 1960, the historian William Stanton published The Leopard’s Spots. Drawing largely from this work, the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould conducted an examination of Morton’s published datasets, and proposed that Morton research was corrupted by Morton unconscious racial bias. Since then, there have been ongoing discussions among philosophers of science as to the validity of Gould’s overall conclusions. Furthermore, some modern authors have embraced Morton’s research as being useful to examining how intelligence may be inherited, despite that fact that there the overwhelming body of evidence indicates that Morton’s research is of little value. Conversely other authors (including the author of this webpage), have concluded that Morton’s work as highly subjective and fatally flawed by methodical error, thus rendering it worthless.