These are the haunting images of the circus ‘freaks’ of the Victorian era – when members of public would pay to watch people with physical deformities.
The word ‘freak’ had been used to cruelly describe people born with ‘abnormal’ features.
But some of the characters in these nineteenth-century photographs would go on to become the beloved stars of their generation.
The 'freaks' provided inspiration for hit musical film The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackman, which charts the birth of the modern circus in 19th century America.
The film featured the likes of The Bearded Lady and produced chart-topping song This is Me which spent nine weeks in the Top 10, reaching No.3 on February 22.
The recently unearthed pictures reveal some of the fascinating people who took to the stage in the 1800s.
The collection features little-known characters of the nineteenth-century freak show such as the limbless ‘The Half-Woman’ Mademoiselle Gabrielle who enthralled Victorian society with her beauty and Ella Harper ‘The Camel Girl’.
Born with a rare condition that caused her knees to bend backwards, Ella’s preference of walking on all fours earned her the nickname ‘Camel Girl’.
She became a star and by 1886, she was demanding $200 per week (equivalent to over $5,000 or £3,900 today).
The black-and-white photographs also feature ‘The Elastic-Skin Man’ Felix Wehrle who could stretch his skin to great length as well as conjoined twins Rosa and Josepha Blazek.
Joined at their posterior, twins Rosa and Josepha become worldwide sensations when they toured Europe in the late nineteenth century.
When Rosa announced she was pregnant in 1909, the twin’s apparent ménage-a-trois situation and rumours that he father was their managers caused scandal in Victorian society.
Nonetheless, Rosa’s son, Little Franz joined the twins’ travelling show as ‘The Son of Two Mothers’ in 1910.
Other intriguing individuals in the collection include The Minnesota Wooly Baby Alice Doherty, ‘Armless Wonder’ Charles Tripp and Pasqual Pinon more commonly known as ‘The Two-Headed Mexican’.
Pasqual Pinon was discovered by a sideshow promoter in Texas – whose attention had been caught by the large benign tumour on the top of Pinon’s head.
The promoter recruited Pinon into his freak show and placed a fake face made of wax onto his tumour – so that it looked like two heads.
Pinon’s act as The Two Headed Mexican became an instant success and he toured for several years.
At the end of his illustrious career, the circus manager paid to have Pinon’s tumour removed.
Exhibitions of live human curiosities had appeared in travelling fairs, circuses and taverns in England since the 1600s – but ‘freak’ shows became a particularly popular form of entertainment during the Victorian period.
In America, the freak show was popularized by PT Barnham who described his offering as the 'Greatest show on Earth'.
Barnham’s circus was so popular that it toured the United Kingdom in 1889 and 1897 and was the ultimate in showmanship and spectacle with an average crowd of 10,000 people per performance.
However, many of the people weren't as shocking as described, so the show owners created a background story to go with each performer. Midgets were frequently advertised as being much older than they actually were – whilst ‘Hairy Mary from Borneo’ was not a woman, but a monkey in reality.
As science improved and led to many of the 'freaks' physical differences being explained as genetic mutation or disease, the sideshow fell into decline as the individuals were treated with compassion and sympathy instead of fear and disgust.
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