[CIRCUS HISTORY] The Wild Australian Children

A$400 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

1864-1865. Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 100 x 55 mm, printed caption on mount beneath image, verso with studio imprint of Charles D. Fredricks Co., Specialit , 587 Broadway, New York and revenue stamp; the albumen print in good condition but with some uneven colouring due to the glue used in the original mounting process; the mount with mild toning. A portrait of two microencephalic sideshow freaks , whose physical appearance led them to be referred to at the time by promoters and commentators as pinheads . The children were billed as Hoomio and Iola, who had purportedly been found in the interior of Australia. 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 exhibited by promoters from around 1864 to at least 1869. They represented an opportunity for promoters to exploit the controversy surrounding the Darwinian theo

• Binding: Hardcover

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