Montezuma Flatheads
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Albumen cabinet card portrait of a well-dressed man and two circus or "freak show" performers identified as "Montezuma Flatheads." In the photograph, two people, probably a man and a woman, are dressed in jungle-influenced costume, have prominent canine teeth sticking out from their closed lips, and both are bald except for a small tuft of hair on the top of their heads gathered into a pony tail. The mustachioed man standing between them with his hands on their shoulders is wearing a suit and prominently displays a watch chain that is tinted gold.
label: Description
content: The Circus Collection includes the Photographic History Collection’s object holdings related to the history of circus from the end of the nineteenth to the turn of the twenty-first century. For the purpose of this finding aid, circus is defined as any activity relating to the staging and viewing of circus, sideshow, or “freak show” performances. The collection is primarily composed of thirty cabinet print and thirteen carte-de-visite photographs of performers in circus “freak shows.” Some of these prints are marked with the identities of the individuals depicted, including Chang and Eng, Siamese twins employed by the Barnum & Bailey circus and Tom Thumb, a famous performer with dwarfism. In a number of the photographs, the people who performed for the circus are accompanied by their families, or “normal” individuals to emphasize the distinctiveness of the performer. The collection also includes a photo album with twenty-three photographs of circus performers. These pictures show “freak show” performers, acrobats, and other individuals who may have performed in circus shows.
label: Description
content: The collection also includes several books. In the handmade book, Record of an Idle Summer, Florence Albrecht details her summer activities and shares reflections on her time on the Jersey Shore in 1906. In the chapter “May,” the author describes the circus coming to town, including several photographs of circus tents, elephants, and a parade down the main street of the town. P.T. Barnum’s autobiography Struggles and Triumphs also exists in the Photographic History Collection. In the book, Barnum recounts his life’s endeavors, including his New York American Museum and eponymous circus. While there are no photographs in the book, there are a number of illustrations, including a portrait of P.T. Barnum based on G. K. Warren’s photograph, pictures of his museum and various aspects of his traveling show. There is a collection of gelatin silver photographs made in 1972 by Leslie Sussmann and Sally Bordwell documenting carnivals across the American South.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Circus
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
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content: Photo History Collection
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content: Circus Collection
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content: Photography
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PG.74.25.23
label: accession number
content: 2009.0146
label: catalog number
content: 74.25.23
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cabinet print
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 in x 4 in; 17.78 cm x 10.16 cm