[Ads-l] Antedating of Headshrinker

[Baker, John]

Arnold Zwicky has an article today on his blog that discusses headshrinker, a psychotherapist, and its shortened form, shrink, https://arnoldzwicky.org/2024/05/19/shrink-me-doctor/.  I was unable to antedate either of those terms, but here is an antedating of literal headshrinker, a headhunter who shrinks severed human heads and preserves them as trophies, which the OED has from 1921.  Here is an earlier example from 1919:

"Is your head too large?  You can have it reduced to the size you desire by taking it to the head shrinkers who dwell in Peru just east of the Urabamba canyon.  The head shrinkers guarantee that they will reduce the head and face to the size of an ordinary orange, and that when the job is done your features will be easily recognizable by friends and relatives.  Before the operation is performed, however, it is a necessary preliminary that the head be severed from the body. . . . The headshrinkers, about whom next to nothing is known, are a savage Indian tribe living in mountain fastnesses on the eastern slope of the Andes. . . . The headshrinkers keep the heads of their victims as trophies of their prowess, just as the North American Indians used to keep scalps."

"A Springfield Man in the Lost City of the Incas---Story of the Headshrinkers, a Savage Tribe in Peru," Springfield (Mass.) Republican, Sports, Auto and Magazine Section, at 1, May 11, 1919 (Newspapers.com).  Newspapers.com calls this The Springfield Daily Republican and indexes the page as p. 19.  Note that the article uses both "headshrinkers" and "head shrinkers."  It also refers elsewhere to the "Urubamba valley."

A teaser for this article as forthcoming in The Sunday Republican, captioned as "A Springfield Man in the Lost City of the Incas | Story of the Headshrinkers," was published in a seemingly different newspaper the previous day.  Springfield (Mass.) Daily News, May 10, 1919, at 9 (Newspapers.com).  However, Newspapers.com indexes this newspaper as The Republican.

I also see a couple of earlier examples of the term with different meanings.  First is a display advertisement from the Helena Daily Herald, Nov. 13, 1894, at 6 (Newspapers.com):  "After the | CELEBRATION | You may need a | HEAD | SHRINKER | We Warrant | BROMO-SELTZER | or | BROMO-CAFFIEN | To Act Quickly, Pleasantly, and be cheaper than a new hat. |  PARCHEN-D'ACHEUL DRUG CO."   Newspapers.com indexes this as the Helena Evening Herald.  For further lack of precision, the newspaper refers to itself as Helena Herald at the top of page 1, as The Helena Daily Herald at the top of each subsequent page, and as The Daily Herald in its colophon on page 4.

Second is a notice of a Trustee's Sale in The Weekly Graphic, Kirksville, Mo., Oct. 10, 1902, at 3 (Newspapers.com).  A list of personal property to be auctioned includes "one bull head shrinker."  I have no idea what this refers to.


John Baker



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