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CONGRESS OF THE ODD
CAROLINE CRACHAMI – The Sicilian Fairy
Recently a number of television shows, documentaries and circulating picture sets have generated great interest in the genetic phenomena of primordial dwarfism. These tiny people, these seemingly fragile, delicate and near ethereal human beings conjure images of gossamer fairies and quaint folk stories. Such enchanting imagery is likely the root of this new interest in the condition.
Crachami caused a great amount of sensation and proved to be incredibly popular. Hundreds of people would queue up daily and pay one shilling admission to view the nine-year-old nineteen inch marvel. For the most part, inside the exhibit, Miss Crachami would simply wander around the stage while listening to music. For a few shillings more one was permitted to handle the tiny girl, permitted to dance a little with her, to pat her head and feed her a biscuit or two. King George IV was and admirer as were three hundred members of the English nobility. More than three thousand members of high society visited and played with the doll-like Crachami and likely thousands more common folk did so as well.
The exhibiting schedule was gruelling and on June 3rd of 1824, after receiving more that two hundred patrons, the tiny Miss Crachami collapsed and expired during exhibition.
Her exhibitor, Dr. Gilligan, shopped Crachami’s earthly remains around to various medical institutions before selling them to the anatomist John Hunter for $500, and this is where the tale takes a tragic twist. Caroline was a child far younger than the nine years she was billed as. Modern examinations of her remains place her age at no more than three. She was also likely not Sicilian and probably hailed from Ireland where her parents read of her death in the Cork Inquirer. Her father quickly ferried to England in an attempt to halt any dissection and autopsy. However he arrived too late and Caroline’s bones had already been stripped bare.
The skeleton of Caroline Crachami now resides at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons together with a few mementoes of her life including a pair of her silk stockings, her slippers, a ruby ring and casts of her face and arm. There Caroline forever stands next to The Irish Giant Charles Byrne, his seven foot seven skeleton standing as a silent protector.
image: Portrait of Caroline Crachami by Alfred Edward Chalon.
For more on the life of Caroline Crachami I highly recommend Jan Bondeson’s book A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities .
Note: Caroline Crachami has also been cited as having Seckel’s syndrome or ‘bird headed dwarfism’, however this diagnosis is not the consensus of the medical community.
Addendum: The family of Kenadie Jourdin-Bromley, the tiny child linked above, maintains a website. Her medical expenses are substantial and, if you wish, you can help through a Paypal donation.
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© 2007 – 2012, J Tithonus Pednaud. All rights reserved.
RECOMMENDED READING
American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia
Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit
Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination
Freaks, Geeks, and Strange Girls
Pickled Punks & Girlie Shows: A Life Spent on the Midways of America
The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins
The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top
Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body
James Taylor's Shocked and Amazed: On & Off the Midway
THE AUTHOR
J Tithonus Pednaud has dedicated this site to highlighting the remarkable lives of those born exceedingly different. These so-called freaks and human oddities stand as uplifting testaments to human spirit and serve as inspiring examples of human tenacity.
8 Responses to “CAROLINE CRACHAMI – The Sicilian Fairy”
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Sicilian fairy. What a beautiful tragedy name.
Primordial dwarves are fascinating. They had some on Maury and it was amazing to see just how difficult everyday life can be when you’re not ‘average’ height…or even close to it.
(p.s. It’s spelled ‘queue’ not ‘cue’… that’s for snooker :) )
Thank you for your comments. However here in North America ‘cue’ is also defined as a prompt, hint, suggestion or reminder.
I have recently become quite fascinated with these remarkable miniature people. What interests me most is where the genetic mutation responsible for their height originated. Perhaps, if this account of Caroline being Irish is correct, and since most primordial dwarfs seem to be caucasian, the mutation originated in Ireland – the land of leprechauns? Just a thought. Apologies if it offends.
This website has made me cry more times in one day than I have in a year. I do not understand (and hope I never will) how people can do these things to each other.
Your photos and blog are just awesome. As a wedding and portrait photographer in San Jose, I know that it’s challenging photographing outstanding pictures. I’ll definitely comeback to keep checking your site.
I hope this story is told forever, she deserves it. As do others within such bereavement. I actually found this in “this is my best” great writers share their works. Great book so far, I’m goi g to try to tell this story to everyone I know this week. With the web it’s easy to give a topic and people can find it themselves. Thank you www creators.
She has intrigued me for so long. She is beautiful and tragic. I plan to have her double portrait tattooed. She is one of the littlest angels