Figure A: Laterally reversed photograph of daguerreotype
from the collection of Jack and Beverly Wilgus
This portrait is believed to be the only known image of Phineas Gage
"[...] We have chosen to flip the published image to show Gage's features as they actually appeared. When we were researching the identity of the subject we found that we had to first explain that it was the left and not right eye that was closed because the daguerreotype was a mirror image."
Beverly Wilgus on December 27, 2009
Note: different lighting angles have produced different aspects. The posing position of fig. B is slightly from right. Note the same eye(s) and eyebrows as well as the chin area. Their distances match exactly as the width of the lips. The missing sign of a scar on his forehead could have been retouched or is not visible due to an overexposure from the right. Question: Why there can be seen any scar at all on the left side of his face where the bar entered?*
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Figure B: Unreversed photograph of daguerreotype of unknown man
by William Bell (1830-1910)
"Daguerreotype of unidentified man with ptosis (drooping of an eyelid) by William Bell, taken in 1852. Bell was the Army Medical Museum's main photographer during the Civil War".
Note: Hand-colored and retouched daguerreotype. - The medical diagnosis "ptosis" attributed to this 1852 portrait explains nothing about the cause (Phineas' physician, J.M. Harlow, relates in April 1849 the same diagnosis: ""Ptosis [drooping] of the left eyelid..."). - W. Bell became the Army Medical Museum's main photographer not before 1861, where he took many photographs of wounded soldiers. Therefore his 1852 portrait has nothing to do with is later activity as the Army Medical Museum's main photographer (Bell's activity as a daguerreotypist began in 1848. He was listed in Philadelphia, Pa., 1852-1860. In fact this daguerreotype is signed on the red fabric "W. Bell Jenny Lind Gallery 86 N. Second St. Phila").
If the year 1852 is correct, the fig. B could have been taken eight years before fig. A., which may show Gage in his later years. This would explain the younger aspect. After the accident Gage continued to work in various places like New England, Chile and California as a long-distance stagecoach driver or a farmer. Working in all-weather conditions has inevitably matured his face in a few years.
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