Death mask of a person with microcephaly
This death mask of a person with Seckel Syndrome was likely created as a teaching aid for the 19th-century pseudoscience of phrenology. Seckel Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterised by microcephaly.
We believe that this is a copy of the ‘Idiot D’Amsterdam’, attributed to James DeVille, around 1830. James DeVille (1777-1846) was the leading phrenologist of London in the 1820s and 1830s, and made over 5000 casts taken from people at his premises 367 Strand, London.
If it is ‘Idiot D’Amsterdam’ not much is known other than he lived in Amsterdam and lived with microcephaly. Whilst the names of many death masks of famous people and criminals were recorded, masks cast from disabled people, especially those with learning disabilities, were not. These people were used to represent certain categories rather than being displayed as individuals. In the 19th century, terms like 'idiot' were widely used in medical fields - later popularised in everyday language. The word is now considered offensive.
Categorizing disabled people as 'lesser' and 'other' through scientific study reinforced eugenical hierarchies and further diminished the position of disabled people in society. Now understood as a pseudoscience, phrenology is no longer practiced.
Samuel Godfrey’s patient notes from the Worcester City and County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
At the time of the George Marshall Medical Museum first opening in 2002, it was believed that this death mask portrayed one of the former patients, a Samuel Godfrey. While that is no longer believed to be the case, it is worth sharing Samuel’s short story here.
Samuel was admitted 17 August 1857 and his single page of notes (which can be downloaded here) include the following information:
Samuel was from Causeway Meadows, Dodderhill, the son of a shoemaker. On admission he was “emaciated, pale, sickly and deformed boy, having the appearance and growth of a child […] of nine years of age. The face is expressive of idiocy, vacant and stolid: the head of small size…” “He has been idiotic from birth. His mother ascribes his condition to her being in a state of starvation while pregnant with him. He is a great smoker and torments many people for money and tobacco: he is in the practise of throwing stones at persons and being otherwise troublesome. He has been found incapable of any employment on account of his want of mind.”
We are working on researching the lives of the Powick asylum’s patients in more detail. Find out more.