Barnum’s Gallery of Wonders

“Barnum’s Gallery of Wonders N: 14, Gallerie de Ravillas de Barnum N: 14, The Wonderful Albino Family, Rudolph Lucasie wife and child from Mada Gascar, etc., En El Museo de Barnum, Nueva York 1860”

In the mid-19th century, Rudolph Lucasie and family were most likely the only known example of an entire family with albinism. Then considered “freaks,” they were seen in Amsterdam, Holland, and in 1857 they were brought to America by Phineas Barnum, the famous showman and owner of Barnum’s American Museum in Manhattan. The Lucasies became one of his most popular exhibits.  Barnum billed them as being of black Madagascan lineage and claimed that their pink eyes stayed wide open while they slept. Along with other “living curiosities” in Barnum's employ, they offered life story pamphlets for sale along with their 15 cent carte de visite photographs.