A head in profile, the scalp partitioned into small numbered fields each labelled with a faculty — Benevolence, Combativeness, Veneration, Mirth — the famous 'Symbolical Head' of the Fowler brothers, the great popularisers of phrenology. Their charts, sold by the thousand through the nineteenth century, taught that character sat in discrete organs of the brain, readable as bumps on the skull. Phrenology was wrong — the mind is not parcelled out this way, and the skull does not report it — and it did real harm in its day. We hang the plate for exactly that reason: as a vivid specimen in the history of ideas, a science that persuaded a century and then fell.

Maker: O. S. & L. N. Fowler
Date: c. 1859
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: Fowler & Wells · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Fowler & Wells · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00470

As chosen: 11 x 14 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	11 x 14 in
Outside size	12.6 x 15.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 10 in	260	Excellent	Trimmed 7.5%
11 x 14 in	185	Good	Trimmed 9.2%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 12 in	Wrong shape: a 23% crop
12 x 16 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
12 x 18 in	Wrong shape: a 23% crop
16 x 20 in	130 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 23% crop
18 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
20 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 23% crop
24 x 30 in	86 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 36 in	Wrong shape: a 23% crop
30 x 40 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
36 x 48 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
40 x 60 in	Wrong shape: a 23% crop

Scanned

2026-10-07

Master file

2,249 x 2,600 px, srgb

Tone

Darks 1, lights 253 of 255; 4.2% clipped light, 5.1% clipped dark

Colour

0% vivid

Sharpness

42.63

Notes

Pure white on 4% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
Shadows clip on 5% of the image: the darkest areas print as solid black

Shipping for this piece to a US address is $24.80, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.

Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.

A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.