HistoryExtra Podcast Summary

Episode Title: What your hands say about you – according to history
Host: Eleanor Evans
Guest: Professor Alison Bashford
Date: February 11, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores the remarkable history of the human hand as both a practical tool and a source of symbolic meaning across centuries. Historian Alison Bashford, author of Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine and Magic, joins host Eleanor Evans to trace how hands have been used to diagnose illness, tell fortunes, and even establish identity—from ancient palmistry to genetics and criminology. The discussion highlights the intersections of science, medicine, magic, and social realities embedded in the history of reading hands.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Origins and Inspiration for Studying the Hand

• Alison Bashford describes her serendipitous discovery of handprints in the Wellcome Library's archives, including those of cultural luminaries like Virginia Woolf and a striking palm print of a recently deceased gorilla, Mok (02:18).
  • Quote: “It was one of those images that I had no way into. It was inscrutable to me.” — Alison Bashford (03:09)
• This moment became the starting point for her book, prompting her to trace both the ancient origins and modern continuations of palm reading and hand analysis (03:50–04:06).

Ancient Traditions of Palmistry and Hand Reading

• Hand reading originated independently in China and northern India, but also developed in other traditions, notably within medieval Jewish Kabbalah and Greek physiognomy (04:17–05:48).
• Early practices went beyond fortune-telling, focusing often on diagnosing character traits, health, and the “nature of the soul” (06:13).
  • Quote: “It’s much more about that kind of diagnosis...especially of character as opposed to prognosis or telling the future.” — Alison Bashford (06:25)

Palmistry: Legitimate Medicine and Science

• Bashford emphasizes that hand reading wasn’t always a “fringe” pursuit; it attracted the interest of leading physicians, scientists, and anatomists through the centuries (08:06–08:37).
• Isaac Newton is cited as an example—a renowned scientist who bought palmistry books, not only for their geometrical content, but also due to an interest in esoteric traditions (08:37–09:56).
  • Quote: “Some of the most distinguished scientists all the way along are buying chiromancy books, reading hands, writing about hands, thinking about how they can decode the hand.” — Alison Bashford (08:53)

Roma Traditions and Legal Suppression

• The episode explores how Roma women, associated with palm reading and fortune-telling, were the subject of both fascination and criminalization in Britain, tracing legislation from the “Egyptian” (i.e., Roma) Acts of Henry VIII through vagrancy laws in the 20th century (10:26–11:57).
  • Quote: “One of the clauses...was to render unlawful the telling of fortunes from the palm. And...that clause continues through the 18th century, through the 19th century.” — Alison Bashford (11:22)

The Victorian Era: Proliferation, Class, and Crime

• In Victorian London, palmistry surged in popularity and was perceived as threatening enough for police to employ undercover “clients” (mainly women) to sting palmists on fraud charges (17:29–18:53).
• Bashford shares colorful details from archives about these operations, down to the color of curtains and the ceremonial disclaimers palmists adopted to dodge prosecution (19:02–20:19).
  • Memorable moment: Story of Haji Muhammad, a London palmist claiming multi-generational expertise from Cairo, illustrates both real tradition and the entrepreneurial side of palmistry (20:21–21:41).

Celebrity Palmists and the Victorian Occult

• The dashing Edward Heron Allen is profiled as a “celebrity palmist” who read hands for Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker, blending social cachet with esoteric fascination. His career included US tours, literary work on palmistry, and a penchant for Egyptian relics (22:11–24:57).
  • Quote: “He does it as a kind of an after-dinner friendship exercise ... do you really want me to do this? Because you may not like what I have to say.” — Alison Bashford (23:27)

The Science of the Hand: Classification and Anatomy

• Victorian and French palmists classified hands into types—elementary, spatulate, motive—sometimes using them for national and even religious stereotyping (25:29–27:47).
  • Quote: “They’re saying things like, the spatulated hand is most common in the British Isles... it is a Protestant hand that is also attached to Republicanism.” — Alison Bashford (26:39, 27:36)

The Simeon Line: From Magic to Medicine

• The so-called Simeon line (a single transverse crease across the palm) became a focus for anatomists and geneticists, especially its association with Down syndrome (28:32–31:59).
  • This links palmistry directly to clinical practices; even today, the presence of this line is sometimes part of neonatal checks.

The Rise of Fingerprints and “Dermatoglyphics”

• Francis Galton’s work established fingerprints as uniquely individual, replacing hand signatures and becoming fundamental to criminology and genetics (32:22–35:40).
  • Dermatoglyphics (the study of skin patterns) evolved from Galton’s work, fueling both paternity testing and, regrettably, attempts to map human variation and race via palm and fingerprint patterns (35:41–38:02).
  • Quote: “It’s a continuation of Francis Galton’s fingerprinting statistical work.” — Alison Bashford (38:00)

Scientific Rejection of Racial Hand Theories: Lionel Penrose

• Lionel Penrose, a geneticist and Down syndrome specialist, opposed racial science and eugenics, helping to retire racist terminology in medicine (38:02–40:40).
• His posthumously published work, Fingerprints and Palmistry, symbolically fuses scientific and palmistry traditions (41:13–41:26).

Darwin and the Evolutionary Importance of the Hand

• Darwin considered the freeing of the hands from walking as central to human evolution, shaping intelligence and capacity for culture (42:34–43:33).
  • Quote: “Darwin says, you know, one day so to say, pre-humans...stood up on two legs and that released their hands from locomotion.” — Alison Bashford (42:37)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the scholarly status of palmistry:
  “This is story, not about fringe people or just folk traditions... It captures physicians all the way along.” — Alison Bashford (08:16)

• On classifying hands:
  “The spatula’s hand is most common in the British Isles...it is a Protestant hand that is also attached to Republicanism.” — Alison Bashford (27:36)

• On scientific racism:
  “Shamefully, as the 20th century moved on, the field became much more attached to...racial science.” — Alison Bashford (35:41)

• On Darwin and hands:
  “He writes that the hands were freed from locomotion and that enabled these ancient humans to then use their hands for other things.” — Alison Bashford (42:37)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:36: Episode introduction and the premise of hand-reading through history
• 01:35–03:40: Alison Bashford’s discovery at the Wellcome Library and the gorilla handprint
• 04:06–07:48: Ancient origins—India, China, Kabbalah, physiognomy, and early meanings
• 08:06–09:56: Palmistry as legitimate science; examples with Newton
• 10:26–12:44: Roma tradition of palmistry and its criminalization in Britain
• 15:10–20:21: Victorian criminalization and undercover operations on palmistry
• 22:11–24:57: The story of celebrity palmist Edward Heron Allen
• 25:29–27:47: Hand shape classification, national and religious associations
• 28:32–31:59: The Simeon line’s connection to Down syndrome and medicine
• 32:22–35:40: Francis Galton and the development of fingerprinting and dermatoglyphics
• 35:41–38:02: The use (and misuse) of hand patterns to classify human groups
• 38:02–41:26: Lionel Penrose on genetics, anti-racism, and integrating palmistry history
• 42:34–43:33: Darwin’s take on hands and human evolution

Conclusion

This episode offers a sweeping, nuanced look at how hands have been read, interpreted, and manipulated across civilizations and scientific eras. With warmth, humor, and deep scholarship, Alison Bashford dismantles the boundary between magic and science, showing that the hand has always been a locus for questions about identity, fate, and belonging. From forbidden fortune-tellers to distinguished scientists, the conversation reclaims palmistry's place in the broader history of knowledge—and challenges listeners to re-examine what our own hands might say.