?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(ENTERTAINMENT.) Barnum's American Museum advertisement for "The Latest Novelty . . . the Celebrated African United Twins." Illustrated broadsheet, 24 x 9 inches; moderate dampstaining and loss not affecting Millie-Christine portion, mount remnants on verso. [New York], 8 September [1854]
The conjoined twins Millie and Christine McCoy were born into slavery in North Carolina in 1851. They were first exhibited as curiosities at the North Carolina State Fair in 1853, were kidnapped from their enslavers, and were then exhibited in Philadelphia and then P.T. Barnum's museum in September 1854. This Barnum advertisement is thought to be the earliest illustration of the twins, at the age of 3, followed by a detailed clinical description of their condition. The broadsheet also describes other exhibits at the museum, including a rhinoceros and a boa constrictor, while a playbill for theatrical amusements appears on verso, along with another brief note describing the twins as "the greatest wonder of the age." Millie and Christine toured into the 1890s, adding singing to their repertoire.
