Whatever Happened to Walt Whitman’s Brain?

October 21, 2024
cbkretz
Brain from "Tertia pagina figurarum capitalium." New York Public Library Digital Collections.

The science of the brain was changing throughout the 19th century. Medical researchers were peering ever deeper into cerebral mysteries and one question piqued their interest more than any other: who has the biggest brain?

On today’s episode we turn for answers to Dr. James R. Wright, medical historian and retired professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Calgary. He introduces us to brain clubs, mutual autopsy societies and above all, the American Anthropometric Society of Philadelphia. The AAS had a particular interest in collecting and studying the brains of prominent scientists and intellectuals. You can imagine their excitement then, when Walt Whitman died in 1892 not far from their laboratory.

Wright walks us through the ensuing complicated tale uncovered by him and other historians. Did Whitman really donate his brain to science? Why did Henry Ware Cattelll, who performed the autopsy, keep changing his story? And how does eBay and the 1931 movie Frankenstein play into it all?

Join us for a special Halloween episode that is not for the feint of heart

Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 13 Oct. 1912. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1912-10-13/ed-1/seq-48/>

Further Research