One area of photo collecting that provides a challenge is Sideshow Attraction photos, or "Circus Freaks" as they were more commonly known. Freak shows were popular in the United States from around 1840 to 1940, and were often associated with circuses and carnivals. Some shows also exhibited deformed animals (such as two-headed cows, one-eyed pigs, and four-horned goats), famous hoaxes or simply "science gone wrong" exhibits (such as deformed babies). Phineas Taylor Barnum (P. T. Barnum) was famous for his Sideshow Attractions which featured midgets like General Tom Thumb and others.

Collecting CDV's and Cabinet cards of these "Circus Freaks" is a challenge because these types of images simply do not surface for sale as often as other images. Images of midgets like Commodore Nutt are a bit more common as he and other midgets were quite famous in their day.

More uncommon "Circus Freak" images are human deformity images like the Tocci Brothers the famous Conjoined Siamese Twins who were dicephalus tetrabrachius twins, having one body with two legs, two heads, and four arms. Although politically incorrect today, these types of images were very popular in their day, and provide an accurate snapshot of the standards of the period.

portions of this article are reprinted under the GNU Free documentation license

Did you enjoy this article? Please share it!