1881 New York County Surrogate's Court Document SAMUEL R. WELLS, Phrenology Fame

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1881 New York County Surrogate's Court Document SAMUEL R. WELLS, Phrenology Fame
Regarding the 1875 Letters Testamentary on the Estate of Samuel R. Wells of New York City, granted and committed unto Charlotte F. Wells. Wells died in 1875, and was perhaps the premier phrenologist of the era along with his business partners, brothers Orson Squire Fowler and Lorenzo Niles Fowler. Wells' wife Charlotte was a sister of these two, as well. So an otherwise commonplace Surrogate's document proves to have some historical interest to those who study or collect all things "phrenology." Size about 14 x 8-1/2 inches, condition is good, with folding, handling, and some repair/strengthening to the main fold with archival tissue tape from the back side.
Among the most influential leaders of the movement in America during the 19th century were two brothers, Orson Squire Fowler (1809-1887) and Lorenzo Niles Fowler (1811-1896), and their business associate, Samuel Roberts Wells (1820-1875).
The Fowler brothers began as itinerant phrenologists, lecturing and reading heads throughout New England. After a brief practice in Washington, O. S. Fowler went to Philadelphia in 1838 and opened an office called the Phrenological Museum where he began publication of the American Phrenological Journal. The business moved to New York City in 1842, where the two brothers, their sister, Charlotte, and Lorenzo Fowler’s wife, Lydia, became notable phrenologists, and the Phrenological Cabinet, displaying casts, skulls, charts, and other artifacts of the movement, became a popular fixture in the city. Branches of the Cabinet subsequently opened in Boston, at 142 Washington Street, and in Philadelphia. In 1843, Charlotte Fowler married a medical student, Samuel Roberts Wells, who then entered into partnership with his brothers-in-law, forming the publishing house of Fowler and Wells. The firm produced hundreds of titles and editions and, literally, thousands of copies of phrenological texts, and also sold charts, sets of cranial casts, and the famous symbolical heads. In addition to their mercantile ventures, the Fowlers were educators, training an army of phrenologists and supplying them with the tools of their trade.
The Fowlers promoted their business with the pithy slogan “Know thyself,” implying that the self-knowledge derived from phrenology could lead to perfectibility through the development of the faculties. While Gall had conceived of phrenology as an anatomical science, and Spurzheim had continued to develop it along scientific lines, the Fowlers proceeded to simplify, promulgate, and popularize the movement. As part of their mission to improve the lot of mankind, the Fowlers began to tie phrenology to other social reform movements of the period, including temperance, vegetarianism, and sex education.
210713 / 2626 R7/18/2021 AUS
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