Expensively produced, and sold in both standard and large paper subscriber editions, Nott and Gliddon's work was one of the most egregiously racist publications in the history of physical anthropology. Nott, a prominent Southern physician, was a member of Samuel George Morton's American School of Anthropology, which held that that the different races of humankind represented separate species with separate, ancient origins predating the Biblical "creation." Polygenist arguments about race were particularly attractive in the antebellum South, as they provided support for slavery without overtly contradicting the Bible's account of the creation. One of the most outrageous of these arguments (by our standards) was Agassiz's correlation of the geographical distribution of monkeys with that of the "inferior" (i.e., non-white) races of man, an idea further developed by Gliddon in a fold-out chart. This chart, as well as the large folding "Ethnographic Tableau" at the front of the book, are hand-colored in the subscriber's edition; in the regular small-paper edition they are uncolored. Digital facsimile  of a "Subscriber's Copy" from the Internet Archive at this link.

"Since the death of the late lamented President of the Academy of Natural Sciences,- Dr. Samuel George Morton,- his magnifcent Collection of Human Crania, recently increased by the receipt of 67 skulls from various sources, has been permanently deposited in the Museum of the Academy. Prior to his demise, Dr. M. had recieved 100 crania in addition to those mentioned in the third edition of his Catalogue. Since 1849, therefore, the Collection has been augmented by the addition of 167 skulls. To complete the Catalogue in a uniform manner, these have been carefully numbered and measured in accordance with the methods recorded in the Crania Americana, &c....

"The entire Collection,- numbering 1035 crania,- was purchased by forty-two gentlemen from the executors of Dr. Morton, for the sum of $4,000 and by them generously presented to the academy.

"The Collection occupies 16 cases on the first gallery, on the south side of the lower room of the Museum. For convenience of study and examination I have grouped the crania according to Race, Family, Tribe, &c., strictly adhering, however, to the classification of Dr. Morton....(p, 3).

"Extensive and unique as is the Collection, it is, nevertheless, still too limited to justify positive and comprehensive conclusions concerning the great fundamental problems of Ethnology. That it will be capable, when sufficiently extended, of throwing much light upon these obscure and unsettled questions is amply attested by the scientific publications of Dr. Morton. It is earnestly hoped, therefore, that this magnificent nucleus, the result of much pecuniary sacrifice and many years of enthusiastic labor on the part of its late illustrious owner and founder, will not be neglected, but that its efficiency will be increased, and the objects for which it was gathered together attained by contributions from all who may be interested in the advancement of this youngest, most intricate, and most important of the sciences" (p. 11). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.