This is a great story that shows the importance of listening to our users AND the power of Flickr…

We’ve heard the story: a railroad worker is impaled with a spike in his head and lives. “Phineas Gage influenced 19th-century thinking about the brain and the localization of its functions, and was perhaps the first case suggesting that damage to specific regions of the brain might affect personality and behavior.”

This story begins with photo collectors Jack and Beverly Wilgus and an unusual dageurreotype they acquired over thirty years ago. They posted images from their collections on Flickr, uploading one in December 2007 they called “Daguerreotype – One Eyed Man with Harpoon.” One comment by one user, in December 2008, changed that title and gave us the only picture of Phineas Gage (it is not the one in this post because reproduction rights are restricted). A Flickr user said “maybe you found a photo of Phineas Gage?” and the rest is history — which you can read more about on their web site “Meet Phineas Gage.”