John Wormberg, Aged 38 Years, only 31 inches high
Publisher
R. S. Kirby
(British, active 1793 – 1815)
Date1813
MediumInk on paper, engraving
DimensionsSheet: 8 3/4 × 5 1/4 in. (22.2 × 13.3 cm)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineTibbals Circus Collection
Object numberht8000282
John Wormberg (also spelled Hans Worrenberg) was born in the 1650s in Switzerland. Described as “a man of the least stature that has been seen in the memory of any,” he exhibited himself in London before the King and around Europe to princes and nobility. He was 2 feet, 7 inches at 37 years old and was known to sing and speak Dutch very well. He held public hourly shows at the London pub The Plume of Feathers and would even visit wealthier patrons in their homes for private inspections.
As part of his public presentation, Wormberg was sometimes carried around the city in a box. Tragically, Wormberg drowned in 1695 in Rotterdam when a porter carrying him in his box fell into the river and could not be recovered.
Wormberg was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism in which the proportions of the body are disproportionate to average growth. While dwarves with typical proportions have often been highly admired for their proximity to the “normal” human body, the proportions of achondroplasic dwarves were thought to blur the line between “monstrous” and “normal”.
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