Orson Squire Fowler was a phrenologist

Phrenology

Phrenology is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules...

 who popularized the octagon house

Octagon house

Octagon houses were a unique house style briefly popular in the 1850s in the United States and Canada. They are characterised by an octagonal plan, and often feature a flat roof and a veranda all round...

 in the middle of the nineteenth century.

The son of Horace and Martha (Howe) Fowler, he was born in Cohocton, New York, He prepared for college at Ashland Academy and studied at Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

, graduating in the class of 1834. With his brother, Lorenzo Niles Fowler, he opened a phrenological

Phrenology

Phrenology is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules...

 office in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and wrote and lectured on phrenology, preservation of health, popular education and social reform from 1834 to 1889.

He edited and published the American Phrenological Journal, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, from 1838 to 1842. He was a partner with Fowler & Wells, publishers, New York, from 1846 to 1854, residing in Fishkill, New York

Fishkill, New York

Fishkill is an upscale village within the much larger town, Town of Fishkill, one of the fastest growing towns in the region, in Dutchess County, New York, USA. The village population was 1,735 at the 2000 census...

 and Elizabeth, New Jersey

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...

. He moved his office to Boston in 1863, residing in Manchester from 1863 to 1880, and resided in Sharon, New York

Sharon, New York

Sharon is a town in Schoharie County, New York, United States. The population was 1,843 at the 2000 census. The town is named after a location in Connecticut, from where some early settlers came....

from 1883 until August 18, 1887, when he died.

Marriages

Fowler was married three times: to Mrs. Eliza (Brevoort) Chevalier; to Mrs. Mary (Aiken) Poole; and to Abbie L. Ayres. He had three children.

Books

• Memory and intellectual improvement (1841)
• Physiology, Animal and Mental (1842)
• Matrimony, or Phrenology applied to the Selection of Companions (1842)
• Self Culture and Perfection of Character (1843)
• Education and Self-improvement
• Hereditary Descent, its Laws and Facts applied to Human Improvement (1843)
• Religion; Natural and Revealed (1844)
• Love and Parentage (1844)
• Maternity: or the Bearing and Nursing of Children (1848)
• The Self Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology (1849), with Lorenzo Fowler
• Sexual Science (1870)
• Phrenology proved, illustrated and applied
• Amativeness
• Human Science
• Creative and Sexual Science, or Manhood, Womanhood, and their Interrelations (1875)
• The Octagon House: A Home for All (reprinted with new illustrations 1973)

Secondary References

• Debby Applegate, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher." Doubleday, 2006.
• Stern, Madeleine. "Heads & Headlines: The Phrenological Fowlers." University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.

External links

• Video | Biographical profile of Orson Squire Fowler
• Orson Squire Fowler: Phrenology and Octagon Houses by John H. Martin
• Inventory of octagon houses
• Fowler Colorado named for O.S. Fowler.