Phrenology was introduced to the United States by Charles Caldwell in the 1820s, but it wasn’t until Spuzheim’s tour of the country that phrenology gained a notable following in the States. The American’s academic communities, while initially enthusiastic, would later join their European colleagues in abandoning the concept within a decade or two. However, it would maintain a popular audience within the uninformed masses. Reflective of the more capitalistic nature of the United States, phrenology in America would developed a more entrepreneurial spirit than in Europe. The commercialized dimensions of phrenology reaches their climax in the dealings of the American Fowler family, who advocated their own method of “practical phrenology.”
