Morton, Crania Americana, 1839
Crania Americana; or, a Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America: to which is Prefixed an Essay on the Varieties of the Human Species. Illustrated by Seventy-eight Plates and a Colored Map. By Samuel George Morton, M.D. Professor of anatomy in the Medical Department of Pennsylvania college at Philadelphia; Member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the American Philosophical Society; of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; of the Boston Society of Natural History, &c., &c. Philadelphia: J. Dobson, Chestnut Street. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 1839.
Folio in original dark brown floral-patterned paper over boards. Newly rebacked with black paper and leather red and gold title label. Shelf wear. Additional scuffing and chipping of boards, mostly at corners. Original end papers. Ffep with early ink signature (J. F. Flagg (?)) and pencil inscription to Dr. J. C. Neilson. An uncut copy. Pages 69/70 and 71/72 present in duplicate. Scattered mild foxing and marginal toning (particularly to some of the last plates which are on the largest sheets). An interesting circular, on a much smaller sheet, from the lithographer, is bound in between the errata and rear blank. A large folded broadside, about findings on auscultation and percussion, loose within volume. Broadside torn along fold and edges flaking.
78 Plates (numbered to 72 as some numbered plates have subsequent lettered plates). Numerous in-text figures of skulls, people, apparatuses, and also phrenological and anthropometric tables.
Ffep, blank, frontis, tissue guard, title, dedication, v, colored map, 296, 78 Plates, errata, circular, blank, rfep.
G-M 201 “Morton, Samuel George. 1799-1851. In his day Morton was the most eminent craniologist in the United States. He had a collection of nearly 1,000 skulls.” See also Heirs 903: “Morton, a native of Philadelphia and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, did notable work both in natural history and clinical medicine. His investigations on the cranial anatomy of various races are considered milestones in anthropology.”
