The Case of Oceola’s Missing Head
Skull Collecting
That’s all and well you may think, it was like going to see the gypsy palm reader, or tarot card reader, people still to it today. But there was a more sinister side of phrenology. Phrenology roots came from archaeology in which in the 1800’s explorers were bring back all sorts of fossilized human remains including skulls, although some skulls might have been, shall we say, of more recent nature. Wealthy individuals often sponsored expeditions, collected artifacts and even had their own museums. One such person was Doctor Valentine Mott who had his own private collection and museum. In 1858 his personal museum collection contained over a dozen heads, two dozen skulls and over fifty craniums listed in his “Catalogue of the Surgical and Pathological Museum”. Some of the entries:
- 457 Gibbs' Head (the pirate). A cast.
- 236 Indian Head, of a male Chippew
- 403 Head of a New Zealander
- 445 Half of the Head. A cast showing a good display of arteries of the face and scalp. On the inside are to be seen the tongue, septum narium, and falx cerebri, with a lateral ventricle and some portions of the cerebrum!
- 184 The Head, entire. An injected preparation.
- 235 Head of a Clu'pptwa Indian (female).
- 112 Cranium of a Peruvian Inca. Procured from one of their places of burial, in the cleft of a rock, on the coast, by my pupil, Dr. Hatfield Smith, while on a voyage of pleasure in the U. S. ship Franklin, Commodore Stewart.
- 173 Cranium of Fay-me-Wau-O, a Ponco Indian woman, Missouri. She died in 1835. Presented by Mr. Cobb, June, 1842.
- 147 Cranium of a Flat-head Indian, from Columbia River. Obtained for me by Sir George Simpson.
- 436 Cranium of Witrlieta Chief. From Fort Belknap, Texas.
- 437 Cranium of the same Chiefs Wife.
- 438 Cranium of his Son.
Dr. Valentine Mott’s grandson, the surgeon Dr. Valentine Mott (1852–1918) studied under Louis Pasteur in Paris and was the first to introduce rabies vaccine into the U.S.