THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Regardless of whether freaks had excess body hair, atypical skin, misshapen limbs, or merely skin color and other physical traits uncommon among their “Caucasian” audiences, human novelties often enhanced their performances by adopting the persona of a liminal being that occupied the borderland between human and animal.  The Bear Lady, the Lion-faced Man, the Leopard Boy, the Frog Man, the Tiger Lady, and the Lobster Claw Lady all had popular acts in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

Durbach/Deformity