Video: "Lady Monkey": an incredible Mexican woman who became a circus wonder in the 19th century
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the 19th century, circus performances were incredibly popular, in which people with all kinds of features of appearance performed. Some were naturally fused twins, others had extra limbs, and still others resembled animals. It was to the latter that she belonged Julia Pastrana … She was called "Bear Woman" or "Lady Monkey". And all because the woman had incredibly thick hair on her face and body.
Julia Pastrana (Julia Pastrana) was born in 1834 in Mexico. She had a rare hereditary disease - hypertrichosis, that is, Julia's entire body from head to toe was covered with thick, coarse hair. In addition to this, the girl had an unusually large nose, ears and teeth, which resembled a gorilla.
When Julia Pastrana was about 20 years old, she crossed the border between Mexico and the United States, where she was noticed by a certain M. Rights. He invited the girl to work in a popular freak show, and she agreed. Despite her creepy appearance, Julia Pastrana was very friendly, sang and danced well.
After a while, she had another entrepreneur, and then Julia got to Theodore Lent, who later became her husband. They went on a tour of Europe, where, in addition to performances, an amazing woman was shown to professors and doctors of science. Theodore Lente even composed a story according to which Julia's mother allegedly went to the mountains, where she mated with monkeys. And from this a baby appeared, all covered with hair.
In 1860, at the age of 26, Julia Pastrana became pregnant. When it came time to give birth, she was on tour in Moscow. The child was born with the same thick hair as the mother. He lived only 35 hours. Julia herself died five days later due to postpartum complications.
Instead of burying his wife and child, Theodore Lente turned to a professor at Moscow University with a request to mummify the dead. Even in the death of Julia, he saw his own benefit: he placed the embalmed remains in a glass coffin and began to carry them around Europe, exposing them to the public.
Two years after Julia's death, Theodore Lent found another woman with the same hairy face, married her, named her Serona Pastrana and began to introduce her to the public as Julia Pastrana's sister.
After the death of Theodore Lent in 1884, the trail of mummies was lost in a Russian psychiatric hospital. In 1921 they appeared in a Norwegian museum, but at the insistence of the public, the sarcophagi were sealed and sent to the archives, where they remained until 1970. Then the mummies were sent to an exhibition in the United States. There, vandals mutilated the body of a newborn, and its remains were eaten by mice.
Julia Pastrana's body found peace only in 2013, when the University of Oslo, where the sarcophagus was located, agreed to hand over the mummies to the Mexicans. The body was buried 150 years after death.
In the circus of the 19th century, a lot of ladies, from one appearance on which, goosebumps ran.
Recommended:
The mysterious artist Arseny Meshchersky, who studied painting from the age of 3 and became one of the best landscape painters of the 19th century
There are many artists in the history of art, whose life has been studied by historians up and down, documented and witnessed by eyewitnesses. But there are also people like Arseny Ivanovich Meshchersky - a mysterious person, part of whose biography is shrouded in secrets and riddles. And what is interesting at all - Arseny Ivanovich always considered himself a "draftsman" of nature, and not a painter, as is customary
Cemetery Picnic: Why Food and Relaxation at Burial Grounds in the 19th Century Became Fashion in the United States
For many people, the cemetery is associated exclusively with a place of sorrow and sorrow. But in the United States, only a century and a half ago, it was in the cemeteries that real picnics were held. And here young people met, relatives communicated with each other, and they just went to dinners arranged at family plots with the graves of the dead. This tradition was especially popular in the late 19th - early 20th centuries
Ladies forward: circus curiosities of the 19th century
The modern circus, with an arena and a dome, appeared only 200 years ago. However, then the artists, for the most part, entertained the audience not with their abilities, but with their unusual appearance. This review features the eccentric ladies who wowed audiences in the circus arena in the 19th century
"Fat Monkey" (Fat Monkey) in the park of São Paulo. Another giant installation by Florentin Hoffmann
Do you think that giant monkeys only live in fairy tales, science fiction films and psychedelic dreams in opiate abusers? This means that you are not yet familiar with Florentijn Hofman's new installation, Fat Monkey. But with Hoffman himself you had the honor to meet in one of our publications - after all, he believes that size matters, and therefore all his projects are exceptionally large-caliber
Jack the Jumper: the 19th century nightmare that became the first comic book superhero
The worst horror story in Victorian England was a fire-breathing devil who jumped unnaturally high and attacked passers-by. Some said that he was a demon, while others believed that he was just an unusually mobile person "with springs on his heels." In any case, Spring-Heeled Jack was an urban legend, embodied in the nightly fears of the British, and his adventures were reflected in the comics that made him insanely famous