A coloured cartoon from the first issue of the Glasgow Looking Glass, 11 June 1825, entitled "Numpskulls and Bumpskulls". The cartoonist is poking fun at members of the Scientific Society and their fashionable interest in phrenology.
Phrenology was the "science" of character divination, and its adherents believed that the shape of a skull and the bumps and uneven areas upon it revealed much about the character and "nature" of the individual. The "bumpskulls" in the cartoon are the objects of study; the "numpskulls" are the men of science who are doing the studying!
Reference: Sp Coll Bh14-x.8
Glasgow University Library, Special Collections
Keywords:
broadsheets, cartoons, Glasgow Looking Glass, journals, lithographs, Northern Looking Glass, periodicals, phrenology, satire, science, Scientific Society, scientists, skulls
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