Isaac W. Sprague, also known as the Original Living Skeleton, was born on May 21, 1841 in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. According to one of his early cabinet cards, he was a normal and active child until the age of twelve – when he began to rapidly lose weight. The boy continued to lose weight and his now terrified parents took Isaac to the best doctors they could find. Unfortunately the doctors were also baffled and Isaac continued to wither away despite a healthy appetite.
In 1865, during a visit to a local carnival a promoter spotted Isaac and offered him a job. At first, the young man refused. But he soon realized that he could earn a good living by capitalizing on his looks. He began touring as ‘The Living Skeleton’ and quickly rose in popularity. In less than a year he auditioned for P. T. Barnum and was hired on a salary of $80 a week.
12:46 pm • 1 December 2011 • 184 notes
Edward Mordrake was reportedly the 19th century heir to an English peerage. He supposedly had an extra face on the back of his head, which could neither eat nor speak, although it could laugh or cry. Edward begged doctors to have his “demon head” removed, because, supposedly, it whispered horrible things to him at night, but no doctor would attempt it. He committed suicide at the age of 23.
12:31 pm • 26 September 2011 • 2,929 notes
As the picture above illustrates, The Feejee (Fiji) Mermaid did not represent the popular ideal of the mermaid of folklore. Far from being a beautiful fish maiden, The Feejee Mermaid was essentially a disgusting abomination of taxidermy often described as a ‘salmon with sagging breasts’. The face, while moderately human in appearance, carried an indescribable look of horror that terrified many an observer.
The ‘human’ portion of the mermaid was determined to be the body of an orangutan and the bottom belonged to a large salmon. While the taxidermy appeared to be quite gruesome, it was actually masterfully done and no seams were visible to the naked eye.
(Source: thehumanmarvels.com)
12:30 pm • 4 August 2011 • 70 notes
Ichthyosis finds its etymological origins in the Greek term for ‘fish’, however the majority of human exhibits afflicted with the skin condition often adopted an Alligator-themed epithet. Susi’s skin, however, was particularly coarse and cracked and the title of ‘elephant-skinned’ seemed more appropriate and illustrative.
While accounts do vary Susi was likely born in 1909 as Charlotte in the western district of Berlin. In early childhood Susi’s ichthyosis manifested aggressively and her skin quickly thickened, turned grey and cracked to visually elephantine properties. Due to the severity of her condition, Susi endured daily physical pain. Her pain was further amplified by multiple infections and illnesses as bacteria invaded the major cracks formed in her skin from even her most subtle movements. During her early years, Susi couldn’t even blink her eyes without risking life-threatening cracks.
In addition to the physical pain, Susi also endured emotional pain as she was the subject of ridicule and segregation from her peers. During the hot summer days, while the other children frolicked in the water, Susi rubbed ice over her arms in an effort to cool down as her skin condition left her unable to sweat. As the children pointed and laughed at her she would not shed a single tear. Her condition had robbed her of that ability as well.
Susi’s parents, in an effort to improve the quality of her life and to prevent infection opportunities, lathered Susi with generous amounts of oil and moisturizer on a daily basis. Susi’s parents were also highly concerned with her general appearance and took to peeling the skin from her face on a nightly basis. Both practices did wonders as her skin became suppler and her facial complexion cleared to reveal an attractive face. Susi would, however, need to repeat the daily procedures for the rest of her life.
By all accounts Susi was a shy, introverted and quiet woman who preferred to keep a low profile and exhibit sparingly. She exhibited herself more or less locally until her manager passed away in the late 1960’s. With his death, Susi’s career and heart for the business died as well. Her last confirmed public appearance was at the Great Allentown Fair in Pennsylvania as a single attraction billed as ‘The Swamp Girl’.
12:31 pm • 2 August 2011 • 38 notes
Minnie Woolsey was born in Georgia in 1880 and a wide variety of stories exist in regards to her physical condition. It is generally believed that Minnie was born with Virchow-Seckel syndrome, a condition also known as bird-headed dwarfism. The syndrome is quite rare and is characterized by a small head, stunted growth, beak-like nose, receding jaw as well as some mental limitations. In addition, the syndrome also left Minnie almost completely bald and blind. Toothless, odd and sporting glasses as thick as her thumb Minnie spent the majority of her formative years in a Georgia Asylum until, as legend states, she was rescued by a showman who thought her oddball looks we just odd enough to cash in on.
Minnie began her sideshow career dressed in an American Indian costume and billed as ‘Minnie-Ha-Ha’. The name was an obvious play on North Carolina’s Minnihaha Falls and the gimmick was likely a nod to the Aztec Children exhibits of yesteryear. Minnie, initially reluctant and shy, soon came to love the attention she received as a sideshow attraction. She was known to dance and shake excitedly and to speak in thrilled gibberish to the delight of audiences everywhere.
In 1932, Minnie landed a role in Freaks as Koo-Koo the Bird Girl and a film legend was born. The image of Minnie, dressed in a feathery costume complete with tiny plumed cap and chicken-like feet, shimmying atop a table during a wedding feast is forever synonymous with the film. Once you seen Minnie’s performance, you will never forget it. In fact, there was actually another ‘Bird Girl’ in Freaks but few remember poor Betty Green as she was completely overshadowed by Minnie. Today Betty Greene is generally only remembered, in error, as being Koo-Koo from Freaks.
12:31 pm • 24 June 2011 • 92 notes
Siamese twins are formed when identical twinning goes awry. The cause of the syndrome is unknown, but it’s suspected to be caused by environmental factors. (A high incidence of Siamese twinning was reported in areas of Vietnam exposed to Agent Orange, for instance.)
Identical twins are formed when a single embryo unexpectedly divides into two embryos which bear identical DNA. Siamese twins result when an embryo starts to divide, but fails to complete the process. The result is not quite two children. Wherever the embryo stopped dividing, the twins that would have been melt back into a single entity. Siamese twins occur in one of every 200,000 live births, which works out to between one and two births per day worldwide (although many of these do not survive long).
There are several major types of Siamese twins, each one stranger than the last — assuming you arrange them in increasing order of strangeness. Which is what we have, in fact, done.
- Thoracopagus: About one in three Siamese twins are connected at the chest. This category alone covers a fairly wide array of possible configurations, with the common element being that thoracopagus twins share a single heart and thus cannot be separated.
- Omphalopagus: These twins are joined in mid-to-lower torso, toward the front and often around the umbilical area. Slightly less common than thoracopagus twins.
- Pygopagus: About one in five Siamese twins are joined at the ass. This may sound awful, but it’s actually good news (in the relative scheme of things) since pygopagus twins have one of the highest success rates for surgical separation.
- Parapagus: Parapagus twins (one in twenty) are joined starting with the lower half and going an indeterminate amount of distance up the body. There are several possible configurations for parapagus twins, who are very difficult to separate. Parapagus twins can appear as two torsos extending from one set of hips, legs and genitals. Alternatively, they can have three or four legs, or one, one and a half or two pairs of genitals. They often share major organs. Rarely, parapagus twins will appear to be one person with two heads.
- Ischopagus: Joined at the bottom of the torso, ischopagus twins don’t share a single heart, but other organs can be involved. The number and functionality of the legs varies, and separation can be problematic. About one in 20 Siamese twins are of the ischopagus type.
- Craniopagus: About one in 50 Siamese twins are joined at the head. This can be extremely problematic in regards to separation, which means craniopagus twins tend to make headlines more often than other types. In most cases, there is a very high risk of death when separating craniopagus twins.
Although the first successful separation was reported in the 17th century, the definition of “successful” is pretty dicey. The earliest separations were performed when one of the twins was gravely ill or had already died, in an effort to save the other.
Because the surgery was most often performed on older Siamese twins, the physical and psychological shock of separation was usually too much to bear, especially when one of the twins died. The surviving twin would linger for weeks or even months — but rarely years.
Medical advances since the 1960s have dramatically improved separation success rates. One reason for this improvement is that doctors have begun operating early, before babies become fully developed and before the brain starts to lock in neural pathways based on the connnected state.
The earlier the surgery is performed, the better the chance that the separated twins can have something resembling a normal life. Today, doctors are able to tackle even the more difficult forms of Siamese twinning, such as craniopagus twins attached at the head, with a reasonable chance of success.
12:30 pm • 9 April 2011 • 49 notes
