Phrenology has been a cultural factor in the Latter Day Saint movement (informally Mormons) since around the time of its founding in 1830.David J. Whittaker "Almanacs in the New England Heritage of Mormonism" Brigham Young University Studies Vol. 29, No. 4 (FALL 1989), pp. 89-113 Phrenology is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking. In Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, pp. 195-203. California: Skeptics Society.Hines, T. (2002). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. New York: Prometheus Books. p. 200 Developed in the 1790s, it became widely popular in the United States in the 1830s and 1840s, coinciding with the rise of the Latter Day Saint movement.
Phrenology was never endorsed as a part of church theology or doctrine, but neither was it considered incompatible. This contrasts with the basic attitude of Orthodox Christian clergy, who generally condemned phrenology as "atheism, materialism, and determinism".Davis Bitton and Gary L. Bunker, Phrenology Among the Mormons, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Volume 9, number 1. Spring 1974 pages: 42-61 Phrenologists themselves considered themselves a secular science, compatible and even supporting of religion. Many early Latter Day Saints, including Joseph Smith, had phrenological readings done, and these readings were used by adherents and critics as supporting evidence of their respective viewpoints.Leaders that had phrenological readings done include Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, George A. Smith, John E. Page, Amasa M. Lyman, Charles C. Rich, George Q. Cannon, Daniel H. Wells, Abraham H. Cannon, Matthias F. Cowley, Orson F. Whitney, Rudger Clawson, Wilford Woodruff, George F. Richards, Sarah Granger Kimball. See Quinn, D. Michael. Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. Signature Books, 1998 e-book location 20343 of 23423
The seriousness with which Latter Day Saints treated phrenology varied greatly, either considering them heretical, frivolous, amusing, or highly significant. By the beginning of the 20th century, the respectability of phrenology began to decline, the appeal to Latter Day Saints subsequently faded away, and is currently generally frowned upon.
Phrenology from 1830 through 1845 Book of Abraham Egyptian mummies
In 1835 the Church of the Latter Day Saints acquired four Egyptian mummies along with papyri from a larger collection of 11 mummies. Only four of the seven mummies Chandler sold before he met Joseph Smith have a current known location. Two mummies were sold by Chandler in Philadelphia to Dr. Samuel Morton who bought it for Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences. These were dissected by Morton in front of other Academy Members. Morton was interested in the phrenology and would remove the skulls from the body, fill the skull with buckshot and then weigh the skull to determine the cavity size.Peterson, H. Donl. The Story of the Book of Abraham: Mummies, Manuscripts, and Mormonism. CFI, 2008. pg 93Samuel Morton, "Observations on Egyptian Ethnography, Derived from Anatomy, History, and the Monuments," These two skulls reside at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology with other crania from the Morton Collection.Provo, Utah, Daily Herald for Sunday, November 23, 1980, p. 59 Several eyewitness accounts of the mummies purchased by the Church also gave phrenological commentary.
Nauvoo Era As the popularity of phrenology increased in the United States in the late 1830s and early 1840s, it became a routine, fashionable thing to obtain a reading. Many Latter Day Saints obtained readings, including many of the leaders.
Privately during the last four years of his life Joseph Smith rejected phrenology.Quinn, D. Michael. Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. Signature Books, 1998 e-book location 20343 of 23423 In January 1841 Smith said he received a revelation about phrenology, with "the Lord Rebuking him sharply in Crediting such a thing; & further said there was No Reality in such a science But was the works of the Devil".Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook eds. "The Words of Joseph Smith:The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph" Grandin Book Co. 1991. page 61 On October 14, 1843, Smith engaged in a "warm debate" with a phrenologist and a mesmerist. Smith contended that they could "not prove that the mind of man was seated in one part of the brain more than another."George D. Smith ed. "An Intimite Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton" Signature Books, May 1995 page 121
In contrast to his private stance, publicly Smith still permitted phrenologists to take readings, and allowed followers to publish them in friendly newspapers. Joseph Smith consented to having phrenologists study his skull at least three times.Once in Philadelphia on 14 Jan. 1840, another time in Nauvoo on 2 July 1842, published in The Wasp, and a third time by Dr. Turner on October 13, 1843] One of his phrenological charts was published in the Nauvoo newspaper The Wasp, along with an explanation that it was to satisfy a large number of people in many places who had "manifested a desire to know the Phrenological development of Joseph Smith's head."Reeve, W. Paul. Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. Oxford University Press, 2017. page 26
Smith's phrenological chart was re-printed by former counselor in the First Presidency John C. Bennett in 1842, as part of his exposé. Bennett used the chart as evidence to argue that Smith was naturally deceitful and untrustworthy.Givens, Terryl. The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy. Oxford University Press, 2013. page 148.
William Smith brother of Joseph Smith and the editor of the Nauvoo newspaper The Wasp, engaged in an editorial battle with Thomas C. Sharp, editor of the anti-Mormon newspaper, the Warsaw Signal. In his June 25, 1842, editorial, William Smith published an attack on Sharp, using elements of phrenology in a satirical article titled "Nose-ology" in reference to Sharp's large nose. Smith attacked "Thom-ASS C. Sharp" stating that "the length of his snout is said to be in the exact proportion of seven to one compared with his intellectual faculties, having upon its convex surface well developed bumps," and that these bumps signified fourteen traits, the first being "Anti-Mormonitiveness."
Advertisements for books on phrenology were displayed prominently in nearly every edition of the church magazine The Prophet starting in May 1844, including those edited by William Smith, Samuel Brannan and Parley P. Pratt. The January 25, 1845 edition produced an article sandwiched between conference reports and a hymn, explaining phrenology in detail, "for the benefit of all those who wish to investigate the science of phrenology."
Brigham Young received at least two readings. One occurred in Boston from famed phrenologist Orson Squire Fowler in 1843 along with Heber C. Kimball, Willford Woodruff and George Albert Smith. At the time Young was at least amused enough to copy his reading into his journal.John G. Turner, "Brigham Young:Pioneer Prophet", Harvard University Press (September 25, 2012). page 100 Later, Young noted that he was not impressed with Fowler or his reading, writing: After giving me a very good chart for $1, I will give him a chart gratis. My opinion of him is, that he is just as nigh being an idiot as a man can be, and have any sense left to pass through the world decently; and it appeared to me that the cause of his success was the amount of impudence and self-importance he possessed, and the high opinion he entertained of his own abilities.E. J. Watson, ed., "Manuscript History of Brigham Young", pp. 150-51.
Phrenology led to an increase in the popularity of making death masks, and could have been a contributing factor in the creation of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith's death masks.Gibson, I. (1985). Death Masks Unlimited. British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition), 291(6511), 1785-1787. Retrieved May 14, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/29521702Church History Joseph and Hyrum Death Masks The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 25 July 2019 Joseph and Hyrum's bodies were exhumed and moved several times to avoid vandalism and rising Mississippi River waters. In 1928, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints moved the bodies to a safer location. The 1928 identification of the bodies was challenged in 1994. Phrenological charts taken of Joseph have been used in forensic analysis to confirm the identity of the exhumed remains.
James H. Monroe, the Latter Day Saint school teacher of the children of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith, made phrenological charts for his pupils so that he could better understand their personalities and improve his teaching of them. He examined the heads of other Latter Day Saints, and was "fully satisfied in the truth of the science."
The Nauvoo Neighbor, edited by apostle John Taylor, noted on May 14, 1845, that a phrenologist had been going around studying the skulls of those in Nauvoo, and that "nothing yet has been discovered more than is common to the heads of other cities, only that the Navooans have large bumps of patience and wisdom. ... he calculates some things about right."
James Strang, leader of the Strangite branch of the Latter Day Saint movement, paid for a phrenological reading in the fall of 1846 in New York City, and published it in the first edition of his church's newspaper, the Northern Islander. The newspaper also had frequent advertisements for phrelogists Fowler and Wells.
Phrenology in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after 1846 Interest in phrenology continued among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Utah in the 1850s and beyond, mirroring a general interest in society at large.For early 1850s example, A letter to the editor of the Phrenological Journal in 1852 by Mrs. L. G. W. of Salt Lake City said, "The Phrenological Journal has taught me how to govern and instruct my children, how to know a good person from a bad one, and is a never ending source of reflection, knowledge, and happiness. Large charts of heads hung up in a convenient place in a house for children to look at, soon interest them and by degrees they acquire a knowledge of the science." American Phrenological Journal, 17(1853), 47 The 1852 official Utah library contained five books with the word "phrenology" in the title, plus two with "physiognomy," and one with "phrenological" in the title, and every volume of American Phrenological Journal.Catalogue of the Utah Territorial Library, October, 1852 (Salt Lake City: Brigham H. Young, 1852), 12, 13, 14, 41, 60.
While crossing the plains to Utah, Heber C. Kimball and Colonel Thomas L. Kane came across a Native American burial mound on August 5, 1846. The next day, Kane paid some boys $2 to dig up the mound and remove the skeleton. Kane carefully wrapped up the bones and skull to take with him to Philadelphia "for the inspection of some professional friend of his who is versed in the science of Craniology."Richard E. Bennett, "The Journey West: The Mormon Pioneer Journals of Horace K. Whitney with Insights by Helen Mar Kimball Whitney" Religious Studies Center (June 25, 2018) e-book location 2775 of 11105Matthew J. Grow, Ronald W. Walker, editors, "The Prophet and the Reformer: The Letters of Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane" Oxford University Press, May 1, 2015. page 29