When Stanley Wallace was aged 12 his parents took him to see Professor White, a travelling phrenologist.1 Phrenology was the pseudoscience of studying bumps and indentations on a person’s head to determine their mental abilities and character. The practice was discredited in the 1800s, but it was still popular in Australia until the early 1900s.2
Robert White visited country schools for years lecturing on phrenology and undertaking private, paid readings of children’s craniums.3 Between 1905 and 1914 he widely visited the MidCoast area including Killawarra, Cundletown, Coopernook, Taree, Wingham and Nabiac.4
Stan’s “delineation” found that he had a good quality brain and his leading trait was “activity”, which he needed to learn to control. A list of reading books was supplied along with advice such as reading aloud, learning to breathe through his nostrils, and cultivating his mental application. The conclusion was that Stan would be well suited to a business salesman, in any line.5
As it turned out Stan did become a successful Taree businessman owning a hairdressing and mercer business in Victoria Street and then establishing the “Ecallaw Broom Company”.7 (Ecallaw was Wallace spelt backwards). The question now is: was the phrenology reading accurate or did it become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Author: Janine Roberts
References:
1 Full name was “John Harkness Stanley Wallace” born in 1895. NSW BDM Birth Index No. 20566/1895.
2 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-26/phrenology-the-discredited-pseudoscience-that-took-off/102737464
3 Western Champion, 3 May 1917, 22
4 MRT, 12 August 1905, 4; 29 July 1905, 5; 22 July 1905, 5; Northern Champion, 4 February 1914, 3.
5 Delineation of Stanley Wallace, 1907. Document held by the Wallace family, Taree.
6 MRT, 28 January 1925, 2.
7 MRT, 30 June 1954, 2.
