If you don’t know the fascinating story of Phineas Gage, watch this video. It’ll explain everything. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
Done? Good.
Needless to say, I’ve always been fascinated by this strange tale. So when M and I had the opportunity to visit Cavendish, Vt., over the weekend, we took it.
Cavendish is a quiet, nondescript New England town, population 1,470. Other than being the former home of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian writer and Nobel Prize winner, Cavendish doesn’t have much to boast. Except for one thing: It is the site of The Gage Accident.
In honor of this curious piece of history, the people of Cavendish have erected a monument to Phineas, which we, of course, visited:
And if you look at the bottom right corner of said monument, there is an image of Phineas’ skull with an arrow showing exactly how the rod flew through it.
A footnote to this story: The rod and Phineas’ skull are currently part of a permanent exhibition at Harvard Medical School’s Warren Anatomical Museum in Boston. In 1998, at the 150th commemoration of the accident, Phineas’ rod was brought — by armed guard — from Harvard to Cavendish for the ceremony.
(Credits: Top two photos taken by Jade Walker. Portrait of Phineas Gage is from the Wikimedia Commons. Footnote info comes from the wonderful book “Vermont Curiosities” by Robert F. Wilson.)
One Comment
Steven
I’ve always been fascinated by Phineas Gage also, ever since I learned about him back in high school. Very cool to see a photograph of him.