[BROADSIDE] Great Living Wonders! / Immense Attraction / The Wild Australian Children

A$1,450 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

are Evidently of a Cannibal Race! / Judging From Their Natural Proclivities, Their Long Sharp Teeth, etc. / Perhaps the Only Specimen From That Country Now Living These Wonders of All Wonders were captured about 7 years ago by a party of gold hunters in the mountainous regions of Australia Can Be Seen In a Pavillion Adjoining Van Amburgh Co’s Menagerie. [Chicago?] : Van Amburgh Co., [1867]. Broadside, 300 x 110 mm, printed on thin paper, text in various fonts with headings in bold, central woodblock illustration by Baker of Chicago; framed. Only one other recorded example. The two microencephalic sideshow freaks , billed as The Wild Australian Children and known as Hoomio and Iola, had purportedly been found in the interior of Australia, although they probably both came from Ohio. An anonymous contemporary promotional pamphlet, which gives a fictitious account of their background, is recorded in several Australian collections ( The Adventures of the three Australian travellers : Capt. J. Reid and his companions Cooper and Parker, in search of the marvelous : giving a graphic account of the discovery, capture and semi-civilization of the wild Australian children, Hoomio and Iola : together with a sketch of the savage tribes inhabiting the interior of Australia : with a brief account of the customs, manners, heathen beliefs, superstitions, traditions and origin of those barbarous and curious islanders . New York : S. Booth, 1864). Hoomio and Iola are known to have been exhibite

• Binding: Hardcover

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