author
Samuel George Morton
1799–1851
A Philadelphia physician and naturalist, he became one of the best-known American skull collectors of the 1800s. His work helped shape early physical anthropology while also promoting racial theories that are now understood as scientific racism.
2 Audiobooks
Some Observations on the Ethnography and Archaeology of the American Aborigines
by Samuel George Morton
About the author
Born in Philadelphia on January 26, 1799, he studied at the University of Pennsylvania and later in Edinburgh before building a career as a physician, anatomy lecturer, and writer. He was also active in scientific institutions in Philadelphia, including the Academy of Natural Sciences.
Morton is most remembered for collecting and measuring human skulls, work he presented in books such as Crania Americana and Crania Aegyptiaca. He argued that humanity was divided into separate races with fixed differences, ideas that were influential in his lifetime but are now widely rejected.
Today, he is often discussed both as an early figure in American anthropology and as an important example of how science was used to support racism in the 19th century. Modern museums and historians have revisited his legacy with that history in mind.