The Wild Australian Children, Hoomio and Iola, ca. 1865 / photographed by Charles D. Fredricks & Co., Specialite, 587 Broadway, New York

PXB 546

fonds

ca. 1865

Graphic Materials, Photographs

950300

1 photographic print - 10.2 x 5.5 cm - carte de visite, upper and side edges trimmed

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 theory of evolution, and were shamelessly portrayed to audiences as specimens of a 'missing link' in the evolutionary chain. Numerous other American sideshow acts of the 1860s, such as Maximo and Bartola, The Ancient Aztec Children, and Waino and Plutano, The Wild Men of Borneo, had similarly exotic histories concocted by promoters to appeal to the fascination of an insatiable and gullible public.

Reference:
Douglas Stewart Fine Books. http://douglasstewart.com.au/ (accessed December 6, 2011)

For other photographs of "Hoomio" and "Iola", see: Wild Australian Children, Hoomio and Iola, aka Tom and Hettie. www.quasi-modo.net/Hoomio.html (accessed December 6, 2011)

Out of copyright: Created before 1955
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Titled on the lower edge

Douglas Stewart Fine Books catalog #1811

Photographer's stamp on the reverse

Hoomio and Iola, real names Tom and Hettie or Hattie, are variously descibed as from Circleville, Ohio; Warwick County, Indiana or the peninsula district of Michigan, USA

Reference:
Wild Australian Children, Hoomio and Iola, aka Tom and Hettie. www.quasi-modo.net/Hoomio.html (accessed December 6, 2011)

Photograph of a circus sideshow advertised as 'Australian'. The two children depicted have microcephaly which affects the growth of the skull. The children were most likely displayed exhibited by Jake Reed as part of a sideshow at the VanAmburgh & Co circus in 1867 and also at Adam Forepaugh's circus in 1869

Reference:
National Library of Australia. http://www.nla.gov.au/ (accessed December 6, 2011)