TY  -  JOUR
TI  -  Coming home – Bally’s miniature phrenological specimens
  AU -Alice Cliff
PY  -  2014
VL  - 
IS  - Spring 2014
KW - Johann Spurzheim
KW - Manchester
KW - material culture
KW - phrenological busts
KW - phrenological heads
KW - phrenology
KW - William Bally

AB - The arrival of William Bally’s set of miniature phrenological specimens in Manchester for the Wellcome Collection exhibition Brains: The Mind as Matter (26 July 2013 – 4 January 2014) was an ideal time to reassess the mysteries of its production – was it made in Manchester or Dublin? In what context was it produced? Phrenology – the study of the shape and contours of the skull to determine mental faculties – has received attention from historians. But the origin and context of this object, although long part of the canon of 19th-century phrenology, has never been fully explored. Close inspection of the object has enabled analysis of its place in the career of its maker, and its significance today as evidence of the role of material culture in the practice of 19th-century phrenology.

N1 - An Unfinished Symphony in Stone, British Pathé, http://www.britishpathe.com/video/an-unfinished-symphony-in-stone (accessed 22 November 2013).

N1 - Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951: William Bally, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII online database, 2011, http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib7_1206548188 (accessed 22 November 2013); Henry Moore Institute Leeds: Online Database of the Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660–1851, www.henry-moore.org/hmi/library/biographical-dictionary-of-sculptors-in-britain (accessed 22 November 2013).

N1 - Victoria and Albert Museum: John Scott, Earl of Eldon (1751–1838), http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O97186/john-scott-earl-of-eldon-relief-bally-william (accessed March 2014)

N1 - Middletonia: The Schwabes, www.middletonia.co.uk/peopleandplaces/schwabes.html (accessed 22 November 2013).

N1 - The Rise and Fall of Phrenology in Edinburgh: The Miniature Heads, http://www.phrenology.mvm.ed.ac.uk/Phrenology/The_Miniature_Heads.html (accessed January 2015).

PB - The Science Museum Group
 
SN -  2054-5770
LA -  eng
DO -  10.15180/140102
UR -  https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/ballys-miniature-phrenological-specimens/
T2 -  Science Museum Group Journal