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Phineas Gage: Neuroscience's Most Famous PatientExplore more photos from the story |
Jack and Beverly Wilgus, collectors of vintage photographs, no longer recall how they came by the 19th-century daguerreotype of a disfigured yet still-handsome man. It was at least 30 years ago. The photograph offered no clues as to where or precisely when it had been taken, who the man was or why he was holding a tapered rod. But the Wilguses speculated that the rod might be a harpoon, and the man’s closed eye and scarred brow the result of an encounter with a whale.
So over the years, as the picture rested in a display case in the couple’s Baltimore home, they thought of the man in the daguerreotype as the battered whaler.
In December 2007, Beverly posted a scan of the image on Flickr, the photo-sharing Web site, and titled it “One-Eyed Man with Harpoon.” Soon, a whaling enthusiast e-mailed her a dissent: that is no harpoon, which suggested that the man was no whaler. Months later, another correspondent told her that the man might be Phineas Gage and, if so, this would be the first known image of him.
Beverly, who had never heard of Gage, went online and found an astonishing tale.
In 1848, Gage, 25, was the foreman of a crew cutting a railroad bed in Cavendish, Vermont. On September 13, as he was using a tamping iron to pack explosive powder into a hole, the powder detonated. The tamping iron—43 inches long, 1.25 inches in diameter and weighing 13.25 pounds—shot skyward, penetrated Gage’s left cheek, ripped into his brain and exited through his skull, landing several dozen feet away. Though blinded in his left eye, he might not even have lost consciousness, and he remained savvy enough to tell a doctor that day, “Here is business enough for you.”
Gage’s initial survival would have ensured him a measure of celebrity, but his name was etched into history by observations made by John Martyn Harlow, the doctor who treated him for a few months afterward. Gage’s friends found him“no longer Gage,” Harlow wrote. The balance between his “intellectual faculties and animal propensities” seemed gone. He could not stick to plans, uttered “the grossest profanity” and showed “little deference for his fellows.” The railroad-construction company that employed him, which had thought him a model foreman, refused to take him back. So Gage went to work at a stable in New Hampshire, drove coaches in Chile and eventually joined relatives in San Francisco, where he died in May 1860, at age 36, after a series of seizures.
In time, Gage became the most famous patient in the annals of neuroscience, because his case was the first to suggest a link between brain trauma and personality change. In his book An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of Phineas Gage, the University of Melbourne’s Malcolm Macmillan writes that two-thirds of introductory psychology textbooks mention Gage. Even today, his skull, the tamping iron and a mask of his face made while he was alive are the most sought-out items at the Warren Anatomical Museum on the Harvard Medical School campus.
Michael Spurlock, a database administrator in Missoula, Montana, happened upon the Wilgus daguerreotype on Flickr in December 2008. As soon as he saw the object the one-eyed man held, Spurlock knew it was not a harpoon. Too short. No wooden shaft. It looked more like a tamping iron, he thought. Instantly, a name popped into his head: Phineas Gage. Spurlock knew the Gage story well enough to know that any photograph of him would be the first to come to light. He knew enough, too, to be intrigued by Gage’s appearance, if it was Gage. Over the years, accounts of his changed character had gone far beyond Harlow’s observations, Macmillan says, turning him into an ill-tempered, shiftless drunk. But the man in the Flickr photogragh seemed well-dressed and confident.
Comments
We congratulate Michael Spurlock for his sharp eye, and the Wilguses for their energetic investigation.
Malcolm Macmillan showed years ago that Gage's mental changes were far less severe than those usually described. Now he and I are developing evidence that from even those moderate changes, Gage eventually recovered to a large extent--that by the end of his life people saw him as essentially normal.
Why bother? Because for people with Frontal Lobe Syndrome (or “Phineas Gage Syndrome”) Gage has too long been a story of despair--a hopeless case spiraling down. The Wilgus photo helps us banish that false and frightening image, taking inspiration instead from Gage’s true portrait: a shattered man who picked himself up, looked the world in the eye, and put his life back together (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage).
We are still completing that portrait, and hope Smithsonian readers can help. Among answers we seek are these, which might be found in letters, diaries, medical and business records, town records, local newspapers, and unpublished material in churches, hospitals and historical societies (or your own attic!):
In New England (1849-54): we need accounts of Phineas exhibiting himself and his "iron," or his reported preaching at Methodist revivals in Sterling, Mass. At Dartmouth you might identify a professor who met Gage.
In Chile (1857-60) we are interested in Drs. William and Henry Trevitt, Masonic lodges, Methodist churches, and English-language newspapers and businesses. Did your Gold Rush ancestors stop here enroute to California?
In California (1860- ) Dr. William Jackson Wentworth (Alameda Co.) may have treated Gage. Are you descended from Gage’s kin Hannah, Delia, Mary, Alice, or Frank Shattuck?
In Ohio (1860- ) are there records of Prof. J.W. Hamilton, or Henry Trevitt’s time at Starling Medical College?
Any help will be greatly appreciated; www.deakin.edu.au/hmnbs/psychology/gagepage/PgQuestn.php has more, and an email address.
Posted by Matthew L Lena (Boston) on December 22,2009 | 02:13 PM
Finding Phineas - I noticed the two images on pages 8 and 10 were reversed. I suspected that daguerreotype was probably a reverse image, but wasn't sure. I "Found Phineas" in the same way in your magazine! One image in the Wilguses' hands was only 5/16" by 3/8", on page 10. The other, 7 1/4" by 8 1/2" on page 8,(vs. 2.75" by 3.25" for the original).
The answer took a closer look at Steve Twomey's article, literally. As Michael Spurlock's conclusions eventually led to the attention of Jack Eckert's camera lense, I used a magnifying glass to read the vertical line on the left side of page 9 to find the answer to the two reversed images in your article ! As well, the inscription on the tamping iron in the photo on page 8 can be read.
Your web-site states the information, but thought those of your subscribing public without computers would enjoy this information to "Find Phineas" as well !
Posted by Alan Skuba on December 22,2009 | 02:48 AM
Have you noticed that the picture of the Wilguses holding the daguerreotype is reversed? The tamping iron is pointing in the wrong direction.
Posted by Ray McCann on December 23,2009 | 11:30 AM
Are the supposed deguerrneotype images on page 8 of your magazine and the deguerrneotype held by Beverly and Jack Wilgus, pg. 10 the same? If so, why is the image of Phineas Gage reversed?
Posted by Walter Mueler on December 23,2009 | 02:42 PM
Daguerreotypes are created via a "direct-to-positive" process, with no intermediate negative and no separate printing step. A consequence is that the final product is always laterally (left-right) reversed; in the photo of the Wilguses holding their treasure, we see Gage as he would have seen himself in a mirror. The other image, of Gage alone, has had a second, compensating reversal applied prior to publication, and here we see Gage as the unknown photographer saw him sitting in the studio.
There is nothing "supposed" about any of this -- it's just as already explained, in the photo caption on the same page on which these comments are posted.
Posted by Matthew L Lena (Boston) on December 23,2009 | 01:21 AM
I am writing in answer to the comments about the larger image and the image we are holding being reversed. Yes, most daguerreotypes are mirror images. We have reversed the illustration laterally since that shows Gage's features correctly. If you look at the image in the magazine you will see that there is a small caption that runs along the right edge of the picture explaining the reason it is reversed. There is also a caption under the picture on the web site.
Posted by Beverly Wilgus on December 24,2009 | 04:16 PM
As an ocularist; I was very interested in reading the article about Phineas Gage- for it showcased a monocular individual. For additional information about eye loss during the American Civil War years (mostly through photograph images of the time) viewers can read the article: Eye Injuries and Prosthetic Restoration during the American Civil War Years at www.artificialeyeclinic.com. The article was published in the Journal of Ophthalmic Prosthetics- the Journal for the American Society of Ocularists.
Any reader with additional information regarding eye loss (especially vintage images!) would find a welcome audience here!
Interesting article!
Michael Hughes
Posted by Michael Hughes on December 26,2009 | 07:14 AM
I write in response to the comments about the reversed image of Phineas Gage in the article and web site. As stated in the caption that runs up the right side of the published image and is under the internet image, this daguerreotype(like most daguerreotypes)is a mirror image that is laterally reversed. We have chosen to flip the published image to show Gage's features as they actually appeared. When we were researching the identity of the subject we found that we had to first explain that it was the left and not right eye that was closed because the daguerreotype was a mirror image.
Posted by Beverly Wilgus on December 27,2009 | 11:56 AM
There is no doubt that the photo is of Gage. Compare his left ear in his photo with the left ear in the photo of the life mask. They are identical.
Since the shape of a person's ears are as unique as fingerprints, this is proof that the photo is indeed that of Gage.
Posted by Thomas Duddy on January 9,2010 | 12:25 PM
Mr. Duddy: It's always nice to have independent mutually-reinforcing sources of confirmation, and Sherlock Holmes (who comments on the distinctiveness of ears in "The Cardboard Box") would be mightily pleased by your observation.
But the near-certainty that the the Wilgus daguerreotype really does depict Phineas Gage can be established via less exotic considerations. First, we have the writing on the tamping iron seen in the photo, which matches exactly the writing seen on the iron itself (preserved in the Harvard Medical School's Warren Anatomical Museum).
"But," the doubter may say, "this doesn't rule out this being some 19th-century Harvard student who borrowed the tamping iron for an elaborate photographic prank." Well then, consider also the scars and other disfigurements seen in the image, which even on minute examination (daguerreotypes being renowned for their exquisitely fine detail) precisely correspond to the injuries preserved in a ca.-1850 life mask of Gage (also in the Warren) -- *that* would be have been very hard to fake.
Posted by Matthew L. Lena (Boston) on January 13,2010 | 12:37 PM
can you tell me the summary of this article
Posted by THALIA on January 16,2010 | 01:45 PM
Uncovered a portrait of the younger Phineas Gage?
It's on you to decide if the picture on this site may be attributed to the younger Phineas Gage. Please consult
http://www.people.lu.unisi.ch/casagrar/Phineas_Gage.html
Posted by Roberto Casagrande on January 18,2010 | 11:15 AM
"Your web-site states the information, but thought those of your subscribing public without computers would enjoy this information to "Find Phineas" as well !"
That was one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Thank you, Mr. Skuba.
Posted by M Carrol on January 24,2010 | 01:06 PM
Prof. Macmillan and I were thrilled to learn that a distant relative of Phineas Gage, reading Mr. Twomey's story (above) in January's Smithsonian, wrote to the magazine with the news that she too has a portrait of Phineas. The second portrait is discussed in the March "Letters" section
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Letters-201003.html
and the new portrait itself may be seen at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage
Posted by Matthew L Lena (Boston) on February 19,2010 | 10:34 AM
To: Smithsonian Magazine Editors,
From: Mark D. Mooney - mooneymd@yahoo.com
Granada Hills, CA 91344
Hello.
I have been following the story of Phineas Gage and his tragic accident with great interest. In the March (letters) issue there was more interest about Phineas and the photographs. Back in the early 1960’s my Dad subscribed to both ‘True’ and ‘Argosy’ magazines and as I read about everything I could get my hands on. I read them cover to cover and seeing how I was a fan of the pulp genre anyway I found those magazines would really take me away.
There was a fascinating story in one of them about Phineas Gage. He was working for a railroad, drilling holes and setting off explosives, (black power). In tamping down some in a bore-hole with a steel star drill. It struck off the explosive black powder and drove the star drill through his skull. Somehow he survived the driving of a steel rod through his head. It went though the frontal lobes of his brain and gave him the equivalent of a frontal lobotomy. They went on in the article about his personality changing but they, at the time, didn’t know what had changed about him, other than him getting a steel rod driven through his skull.
Let m know if you uncover any more on this fascinating story of struggle and survival.
Sincerely, Mark D. Mooney
Posted by Mark D. Mooney on February 23,2010 | 06:26 PM