This is another Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren image, this time by Masury, of Boston.
Another Tom Thumb & Wife, NOT by Brady this time
Category Archives: Celebrities
Invasion of the little people!
In my online shopping peregrinations, I came across another Nellie Keeler CDV, so of course I had to add the second varietal to my collection. The captions have it that these are one year apart. Who knows the truth of such things, as so many facts about the circus freak sideshow performers were grossly exaggerated for dramatic effect.
Here is the first one I collected, for comparison:
And somewhat ironically, here is a larger size (roughly 5×7) Cabinet Card of a much larger woman, seated in front of the same dining room sideboard on which Nellie Keeler is posing. When I saw that, I had to grab it just for that cool factor of coincidence. I’d read a lot about how work of battlefield photographers could be connected if not identified by the use of the same backdrops, furniture and even prop weapons/uniforms in Civil War tintypes. While not exactly the same thing, this is my first instance of finding the same props in two different photos of two VERY different subjects by the same photographer.
And last but not least (well, maybe least, based on the factoids on the front of the card) is Admiral Dot – yet another Barnum embellishment with an exalted military rank for someone of restrained stature. A contemporary of General Tom Thumb, Commodore Nutt, Major Atom, Count Rosebud and Baron Littlefinger, he also performed in sideshows.
As the photographer is not credited, it may well have been one of the lesser-known New York studios specializing in the theatrical trade who was able to work a deal with Anthony to distribute their cards.
First Elephant Ever Born in Captivity
Here’s another new image in the collection, part of my growing circus images segment. The photo is of the mother, Hebe, and her baby, “Young America”, the first elephant born in captivity. They were part of Bailey’s circus, later to be bought by P.T. Barnum to become the Barnum & Bailey’s Circus we know today. This may be a photograph of a painting or drawing, I suspect, as the backdrop is somewhat contrived. There is a signature in the lower right corner of the image, “by H.J. Shill Jr.”, who is indicated on the verso as the copyright holder, but the photograph itself was produced by A.W. Rothengatter of Philadelphia (“Instantaneous Photograph from life… No. 1328 Chestnut Street, Phila.”). It’s theoretically possible they brought the two elephants into Rothengatter’s studio and posed them on a painted backdrop, but that would have been a rather sizeable undertaking! Another possibility is that the elephants were photographed, and then in a feat of photo-manipulation worthy of today’s greatest Photoshop wizards, they were merged onto the “jungle” backdrop. The mother looks very photo-realistic, but the baby, not so much. Alternatively this may have been a merger of multiple photographs, and Mr. Shill is getting the credit for the mash-up, which would have been unusual in that day and age as assistants were rarely credited for any work performed and sold under the studio’s name.
Circus Brothers by Gurney & Son, New York
A pair of circus performer brothers – perhaps twins – by Gurney & Son, New York. Gurney, like Sarony, was famous for photographing the famous of the day. Gurney was the one who was requested to photograph Abraham Lincoln lying in state when his funeral cortege was passing through New York on the return train trip to Springfield. But enough of the morbid thoughts. I liked this image because it contains several collecting themes in a single card: children, circus performers, and famous photographers. I’ve been fascinated by the Victorian era advertising slogans people used on the verso of their CDVs, and this one does not fail to disappoint – “I have chained the sun to serve me”. I doubt any photographer could make a more arrogant statement!
I suspect they were also with Barnum’s circus, but I don’t know. If anyone out there recognizes them and knows their identity, it would be much appreciated!
A Brady CDV from the Washington DC Studio, and a Fredericks CDV from ¿Havana?
Two more CDVs – a Brady from the DC studio, and judging by the backmark style, a later (post Civil War) image. The sitter is reputed to be named John Randolph, one of the FitzRandolphs of Philadelphia (or could it be the FitzRandolphs who gave the original land grant to found Princeton University?). Evidence is unclear, but the picture is very.
The second CD is from the Fredericks studio, of New York, Havana and Paris. As the subject is toreadors, I’m guessing this was taken at either the Paris or Havana studios. Bullfighting has never had any serious following in the United States, so toreadors would be unlikely to come to New York on a performing tour of the US. I thought I had another Fredericks CDV somewhere in my collection, but I’ll be damned if I can find it – I may have just recorded the address on my New York studio map during a scan of studio backmarks on eBay.
This is another image that could have been marketed as “gay interest”, thankfully it wasn’t. Despite their costumes and matching fey poses, there’s nothing about them that shouts (or whispers) 19th century code for gay. Pure 21st century wishful thinking.
More Fairy Wedding Photos
I admit it – I got the Fairy Wedding bug. No, not the Charles & Diana wedding bug, or the more recent William & Kate or the Kim & Kris wedding bug (I’d pay YOU to remove the People magazine footage of that debacle from my sight! Celebrity whores have you no shame???). But I digress – I’m fixated on the ORIGINAL celebrity wedding photos: the marriage of Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren, photographed by THE American celebrity photographer, Mathew Brady (yes, Mathew with one T), and stage managed for maximum publicity by P.T. Barnum, the original master promoter and co-creator of the circus that still bears his name.
Here is the follow-up to one of my earlier images of Tom and Lavinia in their wedding ceremony outfits. This one is the dress she wore to their reception with the 2000 guest receiving line where they stood atop a grand piano at the Metropolitan Hotel.
Another, odder wedding souvenir card. This one features George Nutt and Minnie Warren, Lavinia Warren (Mrs. Tom Thumb)’s sister and later George’s wife, playing chess. What this had to do with the wedding is beyond me, but it obviously catered to some 19th century sensibility – perhaps the suggestion was that they had outsized brains in their diminutive bodies, further exaggerating the curiosity/freakish attraction to a customer looking for a spot of distraction from the civil war raging around them in 1863.
This image, undated and uncredited, is from some time later, possibly in the 1870s. Charles and Lavinia Stratton were not able to have children of their own, so P.T. Barnum, ever the showman, would acquire an orphan baby and give it to them to portray as their own, and when the baby got too big, he would find another one. Apparently, as a result, they “had” a one-year old baby for the better part of a decade.
As a memory refresher, here’s the rest of the gang in thumbnails.
More from the Family Circus (make that circus family)
I’ve been fascinated by the Tom Thumb “Fairy Wedding” photos since I found the first one. Now that I’ve discovered that there were multiple poses sold, I’m building a collection of them, trying to see if I can find them all. So far, I have four Brady images from the wedding, an unsigned image of Commodore Nutt and what appears to be a regular girl child without back-stamp, and another Brady image of Tom Thumb, his wife, Commodore Nutt and what I’m guessing is a circus giant (he appears to be twice the size of Charles Stratton – Tom Thumb – who was 3 feet 4 inches tall at his death, making the giant next to him in the neighborhood of 7 feet tall).
Here are the new ones:
Another from the gallery of Dead Celebrities
Here is Henry Irving, the celebrated English thespian, who owned and operated the Lyceum Theater in London. He was the first actor ever to receive knighthood. He hired Bram Stoker to be his stage manager at the Lyceum, and is allegedly the inspiration for the stage manager character in Stoker’s Dracula novel (a character notably absent from all the Dracula movies).
You’ll notice on the verso of the carte the coat-of-arms for the Order of the Garter. From my biographical research on Mr’s Elliot & Fry, they ran a very successful high-end studio in London, doing portraits of public and social, artistic, scientific and political eminences of the Victorian era. The studio operated for over 100 years before being bought out by another notable photographic firm. Most of their negatives were lost during the bombings of London in WW II. Neither Mr. Elliot or Mr. Fry were members of the Order, so the logo on their card must have been a sales pitch to their clientele to suggest the status by association. For those not in the know, the Order of the Garter is the highest possible social honor one can receive from the Queen of England. At any moment in time there are no more than 24 members of the order plus the Queen/King and the Prince of Wales. Membership is by nomination from current members, and at a minimum qualification you must already be knighted by the Queen.
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