Charles Eisenmann (October 5, 1855 – December 8, 1927) was a famous

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

photographer during the late 1880s who worked in the

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighbourhood, neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row (Manhattan), Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th ...

district. Eisenmann's photography was sold in the form of

Cabinet card The cabinet card was a style of photograph that was widely used for Portrait photography, photographic portraiture after 1870. It consisted of a thin photograph mounted on a card typically measuring 108 by 165 mm ( by inches). History The ...

s, popular in this era, available to the middle class. Eisenmann also supplied Duke Tobacco Company with cheesecake photography to stuff in their tobacco cans. The book ''Victorian Cartes-de-Visite'' credits Eisenmann with being the most prolific and well known photographer when it comes to Cabinet cards. His work was the subject of a 1979 monograph, ''Monsters of the

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

'', focusing on his work on human oddities from the

Barnum and Bailey The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling, is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth ...

circus, with a notable widely circulated picture of Jojo the Dog-faced Boy. Although a number of his photographs were of obvious fakes (called "gaffed freaks"), many others were genuinely anomalous, including the giant Ruth Goshen, the four-legged girl Myrtle Corbin, and the Siamese twins

Chang and Eng Chang may refer to: People Surname * Chang (surname), the romanization of several separate Chinese surnames * Chang or Jang (Korean name), romanizations of the Korean surname Given name * Chang Bunker () (1811–1874), one of the origina ...

and Millie and Christine.

Bowery district

The address was 229 Bowery, which now is the home of a ministry and recently underwent a 3 million dollar renovation. At the time the

district was an eclectic mix of artists, transient people and prostitutes. The depiction of this area in the movie ''

Gangs of New York ''Gangs of New York'' is a 2002 American-Italian epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan, based on Herbert Asbury's 1928 book '' The Gangs of New York''. The fil ...

'' is judged by experts to be fairly accurate. The fallout of the New York City draft riots would have made for an era in New York that was unbridled and experimental: an ideal setting for unusual and cutting-edge photography.

Humbugs

In his book, '' Secrets of the Sideshows'',

Joe Nickell Joe Herman Nickell (December 1, 1944 – March 4, 2025) was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, '' Skeptic ...

points out that Eisenmann used a number of notable

humbug A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a "nautical phrase". It is now also often used as an exclamat ...

s or gaffs. These included his "

Circassian beauties The concept of Circassian beauty is an ethnic stereotype of the Circassian people. A fairly extensive literary history suggests that Circassian women were thought to be unusually attractive, spirited, smart, and elegant. Therefore, they were ...

", women with teased, large hairdos who were said to have escaped from Turkish

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

s. The models were locals from the

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

with hair made frizzy and wild by washing in beer, who earned money for posing.

Victorian society and circus freaks

In the late 1880s, A new phenomenon appeared with Victorian society's fascination and sympathy for people who appeared to have genetic abnormalities. There was much publicity, for example, over Princess Alexandra's attention to

Joseph Merrick Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890) was an English man known for his severe physical deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "The Elephant Man", and then went to live at the London Hospital, ...

, the "Elephant Man." Eisenmann saw the golden opportunity in this fascination, and photographed circus people dressed as Victorian society, and conversely Victorian society with circus props. In New York city circus people were quite well received, as evidenced by the proliferation of

dime museum Dime museums were establishments that grew in popularity starting from 1870 that were used to display freak show performers, human anatomy exhibitions, dioramas, oddities, and moral lectures to the general public.Sears, Clare. “Electric Brillia ...

s and the PT Barnum circus located in New York. One of Eisenmann's subjects, Charles Stratton (Major Tom Thumb) was quite well known, and his wedding was quite the affair. "The couple’s elaborate wedding took place in Grace Episcopal Church in New York City. The

Astors The Astor family achieved prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. With German roots, some of their ancestry goes back to the Italian and Swiss Alps, the Astors ...

and the

Vanderbilts The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthr ...

were said to have attended as Barnum sold tickets for $75." Other prestigious clients included

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

, and

Annie Oakley Annie Oakley (born Phoebe Ann Mosey; August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926) was an American marksman, sharpshooter and folk heroine who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Oakley developed hunting skills as a child to provide for her impoveris ...

. In some ways Eisenmann can be considered a kind of

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American Portrait photography, portrait photographer best known for her portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid ...

of the Victorian Bowery district. His career suffered a downturn with the introduction of

Gelatin silver process The gelatin silver print is the most commonly used chemical process in black-and-white photography, and is the fundamental chemical process for modern analog color photography. As such, films and printing papers available for analog photography r ...

photography which made photographs more inexpensive and available for mass consumption.Colleen Fitzpatrick
"Who? what? When? Where? Why? A Photo Puzzle Case Study"
(PDF), ''Games Magazine'', Forensic Genealogy, November 2008. Accessed on March 17, 2012. Also,

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

overtook circuses in popularity at this time as well. In 1898 Eisenmann closed his studio and was succeeded by Frank Wendt. Frank was a sort of intern of his. For a few years, he sold photographic equipment and took conventional portraits in

Plainfield, New Jersey Plainfield is a City (New Jersey), city in Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Nicknamed "The Queen City",

but by 1907 he had disappeared from the public record, some believing he went to Germany. This was the second time he went off the radar, the first time being when his first wife died. At that time he was believed to have gone to Asia. Eventually, in the early 1900s, he resurfaced as the head of the photography department for

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

taking pictures of employees. He died in 1927. A collection of his photographs was auctioned off through

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

in 1991, with an estimated price of between $15,000 and $25,000 for the large collection.

In popular culture

A number of Eisenmann's favorite subjects can be seen depicted in ''The X-Files'' episode "

Humbug A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a "nautical phrase". It is now also often used as an exclamat ...

", namely Jojo the Dog-faced Boy and

Chang and Eng Bunker Chang Bunker (จัน บังเกอร์) and Eng Bunker (อิน บังเกอร์) (May 11, 1811 – January 17, 1874) were Siamese (Thai)-American conjoined twins, conjoined twin brothers whose fame propelled the expression " ...

Contribution to medicine

A number of Eisenmann's pictures have been catalogued for their depiction of a number of

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...

s and abnormalities. Anne Marie Todkill
"Anomalies and anonymity"
''Canadian Medical Association Journal'', August 24, 1999. Accessed on March 17, 2012.

References

External links

The Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs at Syracuse University
*Vintage Sideshow Photography (website)

Maintains a collection of over 300 images by Eisenmann. {{DEFAULTSORT:Eisenmann, Charles Photographers from New York (state) 1855 births 1927 deaths Immigrants to the United States