OUR BENEFACTORS
THE BALLYHOO
CONGRESS OF THE ODD
ELLA HARPER – The Camel Girl
Most sources indicate that Ella Harper was born in Hendersonville, Tennessee around 1870 – although there are some conflicting reports. What is not argued, however, is the fact that Ella was born with an unusual orthopedic condition resulting in knees that bent backwards. The nature of this unusual affliction is exceedingly rare and relatively unknown, however most modern medical types would classify her condition and a very advanced form of congenital genu recurvatum – also known as ‘back knee deformity’. Her unusually bent knees, coupled with her preference of walking on all fours resulted in her moniker of ‘The Camel Girl’.
In 1886, Ella was the star of W. H. Harris’s Nickel Plate Circus, often appearing accompanied by a camel when presented to audiences and she was a feature in the newspapers of every town the circus visited. Those newspapers touted Ella as ‘the most wonderful freak of nature since the creation of the world’ and that her ‘counterpart never did exist’.
The back of Ella’s 1886 pitch card is far more modest in its information:
‘I am called the camel girl because my knees turn backward. I can walk best on my hands and feet as you see me in the picture. I have traveled considerably in the show business for the past four years and now, this is 1886 and I intend to quit the show business and go to school and fit myself for another occupation.’
It appears that Ella did indeed move on to other ventures and her $200 a week salary likely opened many doors for her. After 1886, no further references to Ella ‘The Camel Girl’ can be found. An Ella Haper from the same county does appear on a marriage certificate in 1905 and a death certificate dated 1921 for that same Ella exists but it is currently unclear if this Ella is indeed the same Camel Girl of sideshow fame.
image: 1. Ella Harper’s 1886 Nickle Plate Circus Pitch Card from the author’s collection.
2. From the book We Who Are Not As Others.
© 2006 – 2013, 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.
15 Responses to “ELLA HARPER – The Camel Girl”
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I will leave a reply as soon as I try it Thank you
Such an interesting site, without any offense, i like her, and strangely, i’d be with her, even in libido-related moments…
she was beautiful.. too bad for her…
i’d be with her also :D
Thanks for that fantastic posting. It saved MUCH time :-)
Yeah. I’m sure Ella would have been consoled by the fact that some fruitcakes on the internet would line-up to “be with” her. I’m sure that’s far more appealing than, you know, having knees which bend the usual way. Idiots.
Make that 4 that would line up to be with her, if you don’t think she is Drop-Dead Gogeous then your the only fruit cake faggot in this whole group, you dumb-ass
The fact that she’s about 13 years old in the 2nd pic,tells me I’d rather be gay than a pedophile.
its STRANGE this is a rare disease called diformity its has rarely been seen by some, in the streets of Marseilles, France i came across ONE .
Just because they state an interest in her sexually doesn’t mean they are perverts, nor does it mean that they don’t think she would have preferred not having regular knees (one has NOTHING to do with the other)—disabled people are sexual beings as well. Is anyone who is with a disabled person “that way” a prevert? I think not. Although frankly, I find the comment that they would be “with her” a little inappropriate on a site like this. It still doesn’t make them perverts.
There’s at least one more case like that today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMrkCqRWA4Y
i agree ladybug that it isnt perverted to be with someone disabled. i think what causes me concern and should cause you concern and anyone else reading this is the fact that the girl in the pictures is ten years old…
She was 13. She was born in 1873, and the pitchcard is dated 1886. Possibly 14, or even 12 based on date. Dates were stated no less than 3 times, however.
I’m not making excuses, she’s still incredibly young…maybe more acceptable back then, but whatever. My point is that basic math has not been applied.
You should do basic math before all your calculations, mathematical and otherwise, become so skewed.
I did some digging on ancestry.com and found a 1880 census in Hendersonville, Sumner County, Tennessee. The census taker made a notation on the sheet that she is “deformed”. She is listed as 10 years old, so the year of birth above is incorrect. She’s shown at the same residence in 1900, living with her mother, who is now a widow. There’s also a 1905 marriage record in this same county, to a Robert L. Savely. Mr. and Mrs. Savely are listed in the 1920 census in Nashville; he is a bookkeeper for a photography company. Finally, there is a death certificate in 1921, dead at 51 from colon cancer in Nashville.