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These conjoined-twins are the original Siamese twins, from whom the name derives. Born at Maklong near Bankok in Siam in about May 1811, of Chinese extraction; they were taken to America and then England in 1829, where they were exhibited causing great excitement. They were placed under the medical charge of G.B. Bolton, M.R.C.S., who made extensive observations along with others at the time. After visiting the principal cities in Europe they returned to America to settle as farmers in North Carolina, adopting the name of Bunker and marrying two sisters who bore each of them many healthy children. In 1869 they made another tour through Europe and took advice from eminent surgeons of Britain and France on the feasibility of being separated, with no ultimate conclusion. After having returned to their dual families (which they kept in separate houses) Chang developed bronchitis, which led to their death in mid-January 1874
They are shown indulging in an English diet. One is drinking liquor, and is thin due to over-reliance on alcohol. The other tucks into a leg of lamb and is obese

Chang and Eng the Siamese twins, eating and drinking to excess. Coloured etching by W. Heath, 1829.

The attitudes and the costumes of the two figures are also contrasted

1 print : etching ; platemark 17.8 x 12.6 cm

A tall thin man facing a short stout woman. Etching by F. Grose.

The truth is, body positivity is for white women. White female bodies being safe is paramount to maintaining white supremacy. - Stephanie Yeboah, 2017 Twenty-nine year-old plus-size blogger Stephanie Yeboah has experienced racism and fat-phobia throughout her life. From being bullied at school to being objectified and humiliated in her dating life, Stephanie's response to discrimination has always been to change the narrative around body-image and what we see as beautiful. In her debut book, Fattily Ever After, Stephanie Yeboah speaks openly and courageously about her own experience on navigating life as a black, plus-sized woman - telling it how it really is - and how she has managed to find self-acceptance in a world where judgement and discrimination are rife. Featuring stories of every day misogynoir and being fetishized, to navigating the cesspit of online dating and experiencing loneliness, Stephanie shares her thoughts on the treatment of black women throughout history, the marginalisation of black, plus-sized women in the media (even within the body-positivity movement) whilst drawing on wisdom from other black fat liberation champions along the way. Peppered with insightful tips and honest advice and boldly illustrated throughout, this inspiring and powerful book is essential reading for a generation of black, plus-sized women, helping them to live their life openly, unapologetically and with confidence.

Fattily Ever After: A Black Fat Girl's Guide to Living Life Unapologetically / Stephanie Yeboah.

"Mr Thomas D. Jennings, for whom it is claimed that he is the biggest man in Australia, keeps the Harvest Home Inn on the New Town road, about a mile and a half from the centre of Hobart. He is 5ft 10in high, weighs 32 stone, measures 68 inches round the chest, 82in round the waist, and 20in. round the calf. He is perfectly healthy, and boasts that he has never taken a dose of medicine in his life. Mr Jennings was originally a strongly built man, and measured forty inches round the waist when he was 29 years of age but he did not begin to put on much flesh till he was about forty. He is now sixty, having been born in Yorkshire in the year 1824. For many years he kept the Derwent Inn, at Risdon Ferry, in Tasmania. Three years ago he moved to his present state of location. The oddest thing is, he says, that he never realizes the idea that he is unlike other people, and when he sees them staring at him it makes him laugh. He does not walk much, though he can do so, he says, " as well as any man," so he uses a pony cart, which is rather rough on the pony. The subject of this extraordinary development is extremely temperate, eats only two meals a day, and drinks very little. Drinking, he says, reduces his bulk, but he cannot stand it. At the Theater Royal in Hobart they have to open both folding doors to let him into the stalls, and by the fact of the doors being opened the public know he is coming to the theater. Mr Thomas Jennings intends to get married again and is by no means worried about his age, which he carries remarkably well, being indeed the only instance of a fat man who has preserved his health and his bulk together."-- Tuapeka Times, volume XVII, issue 1057, 9 July 1884, p. 3, cited from blog 'On the convict trail' by Geoff Ritchie, 18 January 2015 (accessed 21 August 2020)

1 photograph : photoprint ; sheet 27.5 x 20.9 cm

Thomas Dewhurst Jennings, seated on two dining chairs. Photograph, 1884.

Box file containing items of ephemera in acid free sleeves including: "I likes eating best" (postcard : fat boy), "Look what the seaside has done for me!" (postcard : 1919? : fat woman), 'Summer heat and obesty' (F. C. Russell), Diet Vite meal replacements and 7-day diet plan food (Beechams, 1981), Crunch n' Slim biscuits (Crooke's Products Ltd.,1982), Sainsbury's diets (online diet service, 2010), Catford Weight Loss Club (2012), 'Goodbye fat!' B-Slenda leaflet (Pharma Nord (UK) Ltd., 2012), 'Love life, love Slimming World' (2008, 2014).

General Collections Ephemera Collection

Slimming & obesity ephemera. Box 1.

Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès was a lawyer and politician associated with Napoleon. In 1800 he was second consul (with Bonaparte and Lebrun), and under the Empire he was nominated a prince and Duke of Parma. At the restoration he went into exile in Brussels. He was mocked for homosexuality and love of honours. Both Jean Dagobert d'Aigrefeuille and Auguste-Joseph Baude de la Vieuville (1760-1835) were lawyers and politicians in Alsace

1 print : engraving ; platemark 19.2 x 15 cm

Three men in uniform with swords take their morning walk: Cambacérès, d'Aigrefeuille and La Vieuville. Coloured engraving, ca. 1815.

The ethnic types depicted are the following: "African", head of a black man with big lips; "Australians", two aboriginal people with pointed heads; "North American Indian", man wearing head-dress; "Mexican", wearing sombrero; "Soudanese", wearing turban
The "living curiosities" depicted are the following: "A living mystery.", a woman without body below the waist; "The stoutest lady in the world", a fat lady; "Snake charmer", sitting cross-legged, holding two snakes; "The tallest & shortest woman in the Universe, (pretty & of good figures)"; "Neither arms nor legs.", a man without a body below the waist and without arms, placed on the seat of an armchair; "The twoheaded marvel.", a woman who appears to have two heads; "The finest head of hair ever seen.", a woman with long blonde hair down to the ground; "The fat boy"; "The tallest & shortest man in the world. These men are the long and the short of it", the tall man lighting a cigarette from the flame at the top of a gas lamp, the short man standing at the foot of the lamppost. In the centre are are a lion-tamer, a conjurer, and a ventriloquist

Racial types and people with physical abnormalities exhibited at S. Watson's American Museum of Living Curiosities. Colour lithograph.

"The definitive collection of art, poetry, and prose, celebrating fat acceptance Chubby. Curvy. Fluffy. Plus-size. Thick. Fat. The time has come for fat people to tell their own stories. The (Other) F Word combines personal essays, prose, poetry, fashion tips, and art to create a relatable and attractive guide about body image and body positivity. This YA crossover anthology is meant for people of all sizes who desire to be seen and heard in a culture consumed by a narrow definition of beauty. By combining the talents of renowned fat YA and middle-grade authors, as well as fat influencers and creators, The (Other) F Word offers teen readers and activists of all ages a guide for navigating our world with confidence and courage."--

The (other) F word : a celebration of the fat & fierce / edited by Angie Manfredi.

Sarah Bartman (Saartjie Baartman, Saat-Jee, "the Hotttentot Venus", etc. was exhibited in London in 1810 and died in Paris in 1815. Her remains were returned to South Africa by the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, in 2002: see The times, 30 April 2002. Here she is shown meeting members of the Grenville family, some of whom were corpulent, members of a broad-based political coalition called "Broad Bottoms", and regarded as greedy. She shakes hands with Lord Grenville (William Wyndham Grenville), Prime Minister and leader of the Broad Bottoms faction. He is shown as dark-skinned and is dressed in a parody of African costume incorporating a peer's mantle. Behind Grenville is his elder brother, the Marquess of Buckingham (George Nugent Temple Grenville), wearing spectacles. On the right, behind Baartmann, is Buckingham's son, Lord Temple (Richard Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos, Earl Temple, subsequently Duke of Buckingham and Chandos)

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; image 30 x 20.9 cm

Lord Grenville, Prime Minister and leader of the Broad Bottoms faction, meets Sarah Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus": on account of their similar body-mass, a dynastic marriage is considered. Coloured etching attributed to W. Heath, 1810.

Colour leaflet or magazine insert advertising Page Woodcock's Wind Pills. The colour illustration shows an irate fat man, newspaper in hand, in a garden raging at a magpie with one of the pills in its beak looking down at him from the upper branches of a small tree. A overturned table lies on the grass. A half-timbered house is in the distance behind the shrubs and trees. 4 testimonials are on the reverse side.

1 sheet (2 unnumbered pages) : 1 colour illustration ; 21 cm

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Chang and Eng the Siamese twins, eating and drinking to excess. Coloured etching by W. Heath, 1829.

A tall thin man facing a short stout woman. Etching by F. Grose.

Fattily Ever After: A Black Fat Girl's Guide to Living Life Unapologetically / Stephanie Yeboah.

Thomas Dewhurst Jennings, seated on two dining chairs. Photograph, 1884.

Slimming & obesity ephemera. Box 1.

Three men in uniform with swords take their morning walk: Cambacérès, d'Aigrefeuille and La Vieuville. Coloured engraving, ca. 1815.

Racial types and people with physical abnormalities exhibited at S. Watson's American Museum of Living Curiosities. Colour lithograph.

The (other) F word : a celebration of the fat & fierce / edited by Angie Manfredi.

Lord Grenville, Prime Minister and leader of the Broad Bottoms faction, meets Sarah Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus": on account of their similar body-mass, a dynastic marriage is considered. Coloured etching attributed to W. Heath, 1810.

"At the top of the tree" / Page Woodcock.

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Chang and Eng the Siamese twins, eating and drinking to excess. Coloured etching by W. Heath, 1829.

A tall thin man facing a short stout woman. Etching by F. Grose.

Fattily Ever After: A Black Fat Girl's Guide to Living Life Unapologetically / Stephanie Yeboah.

Thomas Dewhurst Jennings, seated on two dining chairs. Photograph, 1884.

Slimming & obesity ephemera. Box 1.

Three men in uniform with swords take their morning walk: Cambacérès, d'Aigrefeuille and La Vieuville. Coloured engraving, ca. 1815.

Racial types and people with physical abnormalities exhibited at S. Watson's American Museum of Living Curiosities. Colour lithograph.

The (other) F word : a celebration of the fat & fierce / edited by Angie Manfredi.

Lord Grenville, Prime Minister and leader of the Broad Bottoms faction, meets Sarah Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus": on account of their similar body-mass, a dynastic marriage is considered. Coloured etching attributed to W. Heath, 1810.

"At the top of the tree" / Page Woodcock.

Stay in the know

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