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Includes posters, handbills and newspaper cuttings mostly about Victorian / Edwardian freak shows. People featured had extremes of obesity (the Mammoth Lady, Elizabeth Armitage, Miss Lucie the Russian Fat Girl), skin diseases (young man "covered with scales"), were siamese twins (the Two-Headed Nightingale, Millie and Christine, the African Twins), dwarves (Harvey's Midges, Admiral Tom Trump, Colonel Dietrich Ulpts, Mr. Uffner's Royal American Midgets, Minnie Warren, General Tom Thumb (watched by Queen Victoria in 1857), Japanese Tommy (a black dwarf), General Mite, Millie Edwards, Edward Nino Hernandez - Metro, September 2010), giants (Pat O'Brien the Irish Giant, German Giantess, Joseph the German Giant, Albert Brough the English Giant, Captain Ureck the Hungarian Giant, Chang the Fychow Giant, Herr Winkelmeier), phenomally strong (American Samson), had hand and foot deformities (Lobster Claw Lady, 1896), tattoos (Flo Riley), hypertrichosis (Mexican Julia Pastrana, 1862, the Russian hirsute Kostroma People, 1874).

General Collections Ephemera Collection

Oversize ephemera. EPH+33.

Freak shows ephemera. Box 3.

[Leaflet advertising an exhibition of the mummified corpse of Julia Pastrana at the Burlington Gallery, 191 Piccadilly, London (1862?)].

"Julia Pastrana (1834-1860), an indigenous woman born in Sinaloa, Mexico, was a gifted singer, musician, and dancer who could converse in English, Spanish, and French. Pastrana's face and body were covered with thick hair, and her jaw was disproportionately large, all due to severe congenital conditions. Throughout much of her life her manager and husband Theodore Lent supervised Pastrana's tours through North America and Europe, billing her as the 'ugliest woman in the world.' Nonetheless, audiences found her affable and intelligent (though she met with very contradictory reactions)."--From synopsis.

200 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour), portraits ; 25 cm

The eye of the beholder : Julia Pastrana's long journey home / edited by Laura Anderson Barbata and Donnna Wingate.

Poster advertising appearances (or levees) by Julia Pastrana at the Regent Gallery, London (in 1862?), singing romantic songs and performing "fancy dances".

Oversize ephemera. Box +33

1 broadside : 1 illustration (black and white), portrait ; 39 x 13 cm

Grand & novel attraction : Miss Julia Pastrana, the nondescript : from the United States and Canada / Regent Gallery, 69, & 71, Quadrant, Regent Street.

[Leaflet advertising exhibition of the curious history of Julia Pastrana, "The Baboon Lady" and the live two-in-one, or, double-bodied boy at Dr. Kahn's Museum. The boy is shown in the illustration. Julia Pastrana was also giving 'levees' at the Regent Gallery 3 times a day].

Page 186 of the 1 March 1862 issue of 'The Penny Illustrated Paper' advertising the display of Julia Pastrana's embalmed corpse at 191, Piccadilly, London.

1 sheet : 1 illustration (black and white), portrait ; 30 x 23 cm

Miss Julia Pastrana, the embalmed nondescript : exhibiting at 191, Piccadilly.

Programme for plays by Shaun Prendergast staged at the Theatre Royal, Brighton as part of the 2005 Brighton Festival between 17 and 21 May 2005. Also includes an advertisement for Schering Health Care Ltd.

32 unnumbered pages : color illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

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Oversize ephemera. EPH+33.

[Leaflet advertising an exhibition of the mummified corpse of Julia Pastrana at the Burlington Gallery, 191 Piccadilly, London (1862?)].

The eye of the beholder : Julia Pastrana's long journey home / edited by Laura Anderson Barbata and Donnna Wingate.

Grand & novel attraction : Miss Julia Pastrana, the nondescript : from the United States and Canada / Regent Gallery, 69, & 71, Quadrant, Regent Street.

[Leaflet advertising exhibition of the curious history of Julia Pastrana, "The Baboon Lady" and the live two-in-one, or, double-bodied boy at Dr. Kahn's Museum. The boy is shown in the illustration. Julia Pastrana was also giving 'levees' at the Regent Gallery 3 times a day].

Miss Julia Pastrana, the embalmed nondescript : exhibiting at 191, Piccadilly.

Zygo : the true history of the tragic life and triumphant death of Julia Pastrana, the ugliest woman in the world : the false corpse.

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Oversize ephemera. EPH+33.

[Leaflet advertising an exhibition of the mummified corpse of Julia Pastrana at the Burlington Gallery, 191 Piccadilly, London (1862?)].

The eye of the beholder : Julia Pastrana's long journey home / edited by Laura Anderson Barbata and Donnna Wingate.

Grand & novel attraction : Miss Julia Pastrana, the nondescript : from the United States and Canada / Regent Gallery, 69, & 71, Quadrant, Regent Street.

[Leaflet advertising exhibition of the curious history of Julia Pastrana, "The Baboon Lady" and the live two-in-one, or, double-bodied boy at Dr. Kahn's Museum. The boy is shown in the illustration. Julia Pastrana was also giving 'levees' at the Regent Gallery 3 times a day].

Miss Julia Pastrana, the embalmed nondescript : exhibiting at 191, Piccadilly.

Zygo : the true history of the tragic life and triumphant death of Julia Pastrana, the ugliest woman in the world : the false corpse.

Stay in the know

Wellcome collectionWellcome Collection

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Wellcome collection