kasturi
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These are the bizarre photographs from 19th century freak shows where members of the public would pay to witness people with physical deformities. During a visit to the traveling circuses, many offered guests the chance to buy 'carte de visites', featuring the image of their favourite attraction
The boy has local gigantism. According to the British Library, freak shows featuring 'live human curiosities' began touring the UK in the 1600s.
Some of the more disturbing images in the archive feature babies who were stillborn but still included in the shows. In America, the freak show was popularized by PT Barnham who described his offering as the 'Greatest show on Earth'. The Thanatos Archive features images form the mid 1800s through to the 1930s, although the popularity of the freak show peaked before the turn of the century.
Abnormally sized children, left, were always popular as were Siamese twins such as the Tocci Brothers, pictured right
The Lucasie family, who were all albino, were well-known sideshow performers during the 19th century , while Issac W. Sprague, known as 'The Living Skeleton', was 5ft 5in and weighed just 46 pounds
Che-Mah, the Chinese Dwarf, who stood a tiny 28-inches tall and tipped the scales at 40 pounds, while this young girl, right, is believed to have had Apert syndrome. The picture was taken in the 1870s but the condition was not recognized until 1906
Laloo, who was born with a parasitic twin brother who was little more than a headless mass of limbs attached to his breastbone, left, while Dudley Foster, right, who weighed just five pounds despite being five years of age
The boy is believed to have Burkitt's Lymphoma
The guy as Hyperthyroidism
A mother poses with her child who has an enlarged head, while post mortem pictures of two-headed babies
Eli Bowen, known as 'The Legless Wonder' from Ohio pictured with wife and rather unhappy child, circa 1875
The legless girl was photographed in the late 1880s
1890s: Eugene Berry, had elephantiasis
Known as 'Just Joe' and had a strange hand
The boy has local gigantism. According to the British Library, freak shows featuring 'live human curiosities' began touring the UK in the 1600s.
Some of the more disturbing images in the archive feature babies who were stillborn but still included in the shows. In America, the freak show was popularized by PT Barnham who described his offering as the 'Greatest show on Earth'. The Thanatos Archive features images form the mid 1800s through to the 1930s, although the popularity of the freak show peaked before the turn of the century.
Abnormally sized children, left, were always popular as were Siamese twins such as the Tocci Brothers, pictured right
The Lucasie family, who were all albino, were well-known sideshow performers during the 19th century , while Issac W. Sprague, known as 'The Living Skeleton', was 5ft 5in and weighed just 46 pounds
Che-Mah, the Chinese Dwarf, who stood a tiny 28-inches tall and tipped the scales at 40 pounds, while this young girl, right, is believed to have had Apert syndrome. The picture was taken in the 1870s but the condition was not recognized until 1906
Laloo, who was born with a parasitic twin brother who was little more than a headless mass of limbs attached to his breastbone, left, while Dudley Foster, right, who weighed just five pounds despite being five years of age
The boy is believed to have Burkitt's Lymphoma
The guy as Hyperthyroidism
A mother poses with her child who has an enlarged head, while post mortem pictures of two-headed babies
Eli Bowen, known as 'The Legless Wonder' from Ohio pictured with wife and rather unhappy child, circa 1875
The legless girl was photographed in the late 1880s
1890s: Eugene Berry, had elephantiasis
Known as 'Just Joe' and had a strange hand
