Reading Skulls: An Object-Based Study of the Vrolik Collection of Racial Anthropology to Determine a Change in Focus of Collecting, 1800-1860

In the history of nineteenth-century collections of racial anthropology, a shift is detectable in the way in which skulls were collected and described. Late-eighteenth century and early-nineteenth century collections-- like those of Blumenbach-- are typological in the sense that certain races or types were represented by only one or a few skulls and, as such, these skulls came to be the ‘ideal’ representatives of those races. Due to positivism and objectivism, a more quantitative or craniometrical approach took over in the late nineteenth century. The aim was to collect as many skulls of a certain race or group and to take as many measurements as possible. The nineteenth-century craniological collection of Amsterdam anatomists and collectors Gerard Vrolik and his son Willem Vrolik was brought together between 1800 and 1860. In theory, the collection history may demonstrate the shift from the typological towards the craniometrical. The main problem with the collection is that its catalogue, written at the end of Willem Vroliks life, gives us only sparse information about the years of entry of individual skulls or other information regarding provenance. However, by using the actual skulls as historical source – the different styles and systems of numbers and labels on their surface and their stands-- I argue that a shift in focus within its 60 years of collecting did occur and can be observed. This object-based study is thus not only of value with regard to specific provenance research, it is also an example of the role it may play in determining broader historical questions.