Scrapbook page with 4 prints of human oddities pasted
Dateno date
CultureUnited Kingdom
MediumInk on paper
ClassificationPrints
Credit LineTibbals Circus Collection
Object numberht8000444
These four images seem to have been printed at the same time, although the individuals depicted and the source images used were separated by significant spans of time.
Jean Staininger was an Austrian government official who died in 1567. Noted for having a beard down to his feet, Staininger’s likeness is taken from a sculpture on his tomb.
Born without arms in 1667, John Kleyser, of Germany, exhibited himself with a performance that included shaving, writing, and balancing a glass of liquid on his forehead.
Swiss dwarf John Worrenburg was born in the 1650s and stood only 2 feet, 7 inches at 37 years old. Sometimes carried around the city in a box as part of his public presentation, Worrenburg drowned in 1695 in Rotterdam when a porter carrying him fell into the river.
In the 1830s Michel Boai and his wife toured Europe presenting their musical performance. Boai’s unique talent of “chin chopping” involved tapping his cheeks while opening and closing his mouth to create sounds of varying pitch.
On View
Not on viewCollections
circa 1820
