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The Mind Unveiled; or a Brief History of Twenty-two Imbecile Children.
Philadelphia: U. Hunt & Son, 1858. 12mo (5” x 7.5”), original red cloth, gilt, all edges gilt. 147 pp. with wood-engraved frontis. (view of the School), 1 full-page wood-engraved plate and 2 illus. in the text. With 5 mounted salt prints with orig. tissue guards. 2 are trimmed to ovals, 3 to rectangles each (of which one with rounded corners). Preserved in a modern red cloth clamshell box. First and only edition (though the work appeared in several issues with varying numbers of photographs; see below), illustrated with original salt print photographs of patients at the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble Minded Children. “This is the first photographically illustrated medical book published in the United States, issued only five years after Homes of American Statesmen. The text makes it apparent that the…School for Feeble Minded Children was ahead of its time in its faith in redeeming backward children. Dr. Parrish [who wrote the introduction] regards this approach as ‘among the greatest discoveries of the present century.’ It is thus a work of considerable sociological interest, also evident in the way the photographs were taken.”—Truthful Lens 97. Copies are known with no photographs, and with one, two, three, four and five photographs. Stanley Burns, in his Early Medical Photography in America (pp. 279-281), gives a description of the book, and states that "it represents the first book in the psychiatric field and perhaps the entire medical field published with actual photographs.” He cites the variant with five photographs, but does not give its location. See also M. Rowley, Photo Illustrated Medical Literature (2004), p. 4; "exceptionally rare book." He describes a copy with two salt prints. Richard Yanul, Photographically Illustrated Books Before 1860 & Medical, p. 12 (supplement) cites a copy with two photographs. All editions and variants of the book are very rare. OCLC locates eleven copies, nine in the U.S., one each in Canada and the UK. The OCLC entry does not state how many photographs each copy has. A fundamental work in the history of the medical use of photography in America and a cornerstone of any collection of photographically illustrated Americana. CONDITION: Good, rubbed, one gathering coming loose, some foxing to photo mounts and tissue guards, but not affecting images. The first four prints are in excellent condition: sharp, dark, in good contrast and unfaded; the fifth print is somewhat pale and has a small smudge to the right of the figure in the image. Offered in partnership with Charles B. Wood III, Inc.
Item #6512
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