History of the Freak Show

Human Anomalies on Display

A Freak Show is an exhibition of novelty performances by people and other living creatures considered to be a freak of nature, usually having physical oddities and impairments. Freak show anomalies are intended to shock audiences with their bizarre acts and strange appearances.

Freak Shows have commonly been associated throughout history with carnivals and circuses due to the showman presentations and narratives. For a hundred years one of America's most popular entertainments was freak shows. In today's world these same exhibits would be considered cruel. Disability rights activists have referred to freak shows as "the pornography of disability." A change in the way living acts were presented didn't come about until P.T. Barnum featured his own "freak," Tom Thumb in his London circus and then later through his Museum in New York City.

The first freak show exhibit took place in 1738. The featured freak of nature was a woman who stood 4 feet tall and had a head shaped like that of an ape.

Freak shows moved from Europe to America in the early 1800's and were popular all the way up to the 1940's. Advances in medical science held very little sway over the opinion of disabled people until somewhere around 1937 when Germany outlawed freaks shows altogether for being exploitive.

In 1851 photographers, through the invention of the set-plate technique, learned that they could make multiple prints from one exposure. These exposures were layered together to create an even more disturbing picture of freaks. Some of the freaks themselves would write on the back of the photos. They became the trading cards of freak shows and were collected by Americans.

The first Siamese twins to arrive on the freak show circuit were Millie and Christina Hilton. The girls were originally born in Brighton (Britain) in 1852 into slavery. They were sold to their first owner for a sum of $30,000. They later sued the woman that purchased them, gained their freedom after the Civil War and went on to make a considerable amount of money performing as a freak show act.