Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Anthropometric portraiture and Victorian anthropology

Situating Francis Galton's photographic work in the late 1870s

Bibliographic Data

ID4392549
AuthorsEfram Sera–shriar (0000-0003-3163-3487, York University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume53
Issue2
Pages155-179
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0073-2753 • E-ISSN: 1753-8564
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0073275315580953
OpenAlexW2313229582
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited10

This paper examines the complex observational techniques of British anthropologists during the nineteenth century. In particular, using Galton's initial work with anthropometric and composite photography in the late 1870s as a case study, it argues that nineteenth-century anthropological armchair studies were extremely sophisticated and that researchers were highly attuned to the problems associated with their methodologies. These nineteenth-century practitioners were not simply anthologising the materials of others; rather they were developing specialised methods for producing their own evidence and drawing conclusions. Moreover, Galton's use of photographic processes is instructive because it highlights one of the ways in which researchers interested in human diversity attempted to add further scientific credibility to their arguments by utilising the most cutting-edge technologies available during the period

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Credibility · Diversity (politics · Epistemology · Galton's problem · Period (music · Photography · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Computer Science · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · History of Science and Natural History · Philosophy · Race, Genetics, and Society

  • Anthropology, Museums and the Body

    Open Access•G Isaac, Kate Clark et al.•Museum and Society•2020

  • Sex in the Secret Museum

    Helen Wickstead•Photography and Culture•2018

  • Who Owns the Victorians

    Susie L Steinbach, Susie Steinbach•Journal of Victorian Culture•2017

  • Eugenics and photography in Britain, the USA and Australia 1870–1940

    Open Access•A Maxwell•Studies in History and Philosophy…•2022

  • The Ethnographer Who Never Was

    Cameron J Watson, Cameron Watson•Visual Anthropology•2020

  • The art of travel; or, Shifts and contrivances available in wild countries

    Francis Galton•1860

  • Picturing Empire

    James R Ryan•Picturing Empire•2013

  • Composite Portraits, Made by Combining Those of Many Different Persons Into a Single Resultant Figure

    Francis Galton•The Journal of the Anthropological…•1879

  • The Ethnographer's Eye

    Open Access•A Grimshaw, Anna Grimshaw•Ethnographer's Eye•2001

  • How to Observe Morals and Manners

    Harriet Martineau, Michael R Hill•How to Observe Morals and Manners•2017

  • Veins of Resemblance

    D Green, David B Green•Oxford Art Journal•1984

  • Scientific publishing and the reading of science in nineteenth-century Britain

    Open Access•Jonathan R Topham•Studies in History and Philosophy…•2000

  • Colonial connections, 1815–45

    Andrew Thompson, Zoë Laidlaw et al.•Colonial Connections, 1815-45•2013

  • Francis Galton's African Ethnography and its Role in the Development of his Psychology

    Open Access•Raymond E Fancher•The British Journal for the…•1983

  • The Ethnographer's Eye

    Open Access•William Rodman, William L Rodman et al.•Anthropologica•2003

Unique citing works5
Citations per year0,56
Citation span2017 - 2022 (6)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 5
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae