Hey guys,

More press about Phineas Gage (and my little film).
Enjoy!

(Google for the photo itself)

Picture of a legendary brain-injury patient surfaces

By CATHERINE BAUM
Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 21, 2009

NORTHAMPTON - A Northampton filmmaker said he was amazed to hear of the recent release of what is reportedly the only known photographic image of 19th-century legendary brain-injury patient Phineas Gage, whose accident is the subject of a short film he shot in Westhampton and area towns last month.

"It's like people discovering old photos of Lincoln," said Richard "Chip" Roughton, who last week started editing the short film "Phineas Gage," the preface to Roughton's full-length film on the rise and fall of lobotomies. Roughton lives in Northampton and has a film studio in Easthampton.

"He's not at all what I envisioned him to look like," said Roughton, who has researched brain and behavior and Gage's accident for a decade. The man in the image is tall with slick, dark hair and one eye shut.

"It's funny; Maybe it's the name Phineas Gage," Roughton continued. "I always imagined him red-headed and curly-headed, with big bushy sideburns. Kind of all Irish, even though I know he's not Irish."

Massachusetts photographers last week discovered a daguerreotype image of Gage holding the 13-pound rod that penetrated his head in 1848 in a notorious accident on a Vermont railroad. The former railroad construction foreman's behavior changed after the incident - he died 11 years after the accident.

The image, to be published online this week in the Journal of the History of Neurosciences, has been in the possession of Jack and Beverly Wilgus for 30 years, according to the Los Angeles Times. The couple thought Gage was a whaler holding his harpoon, the newspaper reported, but whaling experts online disputed that claim and someone else suggested it was Gage.

The daguerreotype was brought to Harvard Medical School's Warren Anatomical Museum, where Gage's life mask is kept. The creation of so-called life mask was a frequent practice in the 19th century. It is a cast made from someone's face post-mortem. It was common to make life masks of famous poets and authors to reveal representations of their nose and face.

Roughton learned of the finding Monday and immediately called the cast and crew to tell them the news.

At first, Roughton said he didn't believe the image was Gage because he had trouble seeing the scar on Gage's cheek. In addition, he said, the rod, which was propelled in an explosion through Gage's left cheek and out through the top of his head, looked too thick to Roughton to actually be the one that injured Gage.

But upon further research, Roughton learned the writing on the metal rod in the image matches the writing on Gage's rod.

"They were able to line up the engravings," said Roughton. "It seems pretty foolproof that it is the actual guy and that's pretty amazing."

Mia Bauman, a New York City makeup artist on set for Roughton's film last month, said the scar appears more prominent on Gage's life mask than it looks in the daguerreotype. She also studied the wound on his skull at the museum.

"From the photograph I can't even see the scar," Bauman said. "I didn't even think it was him at first. As a makeup artist, I feel I didn't do his scar justice."

She was on point with Gage's hair, however. In that time period, Bauman said men either parted their hair to the side or in the middle. Considering Gage's social position for his character development in the film, Bauman decided to part Gage's hair on the side and comb it close to his head. The character, played by Sean McCormick, also wore an eye patch.

"It's weird to see him alive and young and fresh looking," Bauman said. "It gave him more humanity." Roughton, who owns Rough Pictures in Easthampton, said he hopes to have the final cut of the short film complete in the next couple of weeks. He may show "Phineas Gage" to friends and people involved when its complete, but said he has no plans to release the film to the public until he releases the full-length film.

Catherine Baum can be reached at cbaum@....