The Contrarian

Now that’s I hairstyle I could hang with…

Website Nineteenth Century Images of Albinism has, as one would expect, a collection of photographs of albinos from the 1870s-1809s. Albinos were sought out by showmen such as P. T. Barnum for traveling sideshows. Photos of the “performers” were available for collecting and trading—sort of a convoluted set of circus baseball cards.

My fave is undoubtedly the fantastically hirsute Rudolph Lucasie and family, who were “obtained” (yeck) by Barnum during a visit to Amsterdam in 1857.

Thanks to kickin’ photography blog  I Heart Photograph for the link.