Circus Freak Show Performers
As Obects for Eugenics Research
Eugenicists were interested in various disabilities, which they thought would give evidence to support theories of inherited characteristics. Though the circus performers were intended to entertain, eugenicists interpreted their disabilities as examples of degenerate heredity. They thought such people should be sterilized or prevented from marrying.
These photos, collected by eugenicists, include pictures of
circus giants or very tall people; this condition may arise from hereditary giantism, or from tumors of the pituitary gland. Most are about eight feet tall. Those with hereditary giantism are proportionate (photos 749; 836). Those with tumors arising after adolescence have abnormal bone growth of the face and limbs called acromegaly.
Other pictures represent such disabilities as hypertrichosis (excess hair in inappropriate parts of the facial skinóphoto 750); morbid obesity (photo 751); pituitary midgets, whose absence of growth hormone results in small proportionate size (photo 752); achondroplasia, a disproportionate dwarfism of short limbs (photo 845); and phocomelia, a condition of bone loss in the limbs resulting in flipper-like hands or feet (photo 754).
The ensemble of circus performers is shown in photo 1014. Note the monozygotic triplet sisters playing saxophones (lower right). It would be inappropriate today to classify multiple birth siblings as disabled or freakish.
Search terms used to generate above numbers:
Circus
Freak
Side show
Dwarf
Giant