Meet Phineas Gage.
Those of you who have read any introductions to brain science or modern psychology will be familiar with the name. But you may not have seen the face before.
Gage, a railroad worker, became famous for surviving a horrific accident. In 1848 he was using a tamping iron to fill a hole with gunpowder when a stray spark caused an explosion, sending the tamping iron (the one he's holding in that photo) straight through his head. It landed, along with bits of his brain, thirty yards away.
Amazingly, Gage survived, and within a few months was living a relatively normal life, although - it is claimed - he emerged a very different man. The case changed the study of neuroscience forever.
A couple in Massachusetts who collect daguerreotypes have had this in their collection for thirty years. It was only when they uploaded it on to flickr for all to see that one commenter (a history buff) suggested it might be the only known photo of Gage.
(via neurophilosophy)
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