Daniel Lambert, weighing over fifty stone, aged 36. Coloured etching.

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853i
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Credit

Daniel Lambert, weighing over fifty stone, aged 36. Coloured etching. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

The Dictionary of National Biography states that Daniel Lambert was "the most corpulent man of whom authentic record exists". He was born in the parish of St. Margaret in Leicester on 13 March 1770. After taking over his father's post as Leicester gaoler in 1791, his size and weight started to increase enormously. By 1793 he weighed 32 stone although he was very strong and active, only drank water, and slept for less than eight hours a day. In 1805 he resigned his post at the prison to turn his amazing stature to profit by exhibiting himself all over England. He died in Stamford at the Waggon and Horses inn on 21 July 1809 weighing 739 lbs. See further L. Fiedler, 'Freaks', New York 1978, pp. 128-129

Physical description

1 print : etching with watercolour ; image 17 x 26 cm

Lettering

Mr Daniel Lambert, thirty-six years of age, weighs upwards of fifty stone, (14 lbs to the stone,) or seven hundred and one pounds ... The lettering continues with an extensive printed account of the sitter The page bears the heading: "... Extraordinary persons and manners."

References note

Museum Dr Guislain Gent, Het gewichtige lichaam, Tielt: Lannoo, 2010, p. 98

Reference

Wellcome Collection 853i

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