2 photos of so-called "freaks of nature".

1 visiting and 1 cabinet card, photographer's imprint on visiting card, ms. captions in ink on verso cabinet card.

1. The visiting card shows giant Julius Koch and another person of normal length. Koch (1872-1902), also known as "Le Géant Constantin", suffered from gigantism. It was said he was 2.59 m, but more probably he was 2.46 m. At early age Koch was bought by a foul promoter to exhibit him in Germany, Spain and London. Koch starred also in the early short film "The Giant Constantin" which was released in 1902. During 1901 and 1902 he appeared in Mons as a carnaval attraction. There he unfortunately trips on a step and falls backwards which initiates the end of his collaboration with his promoter who abandons him. Koch died not long after in complete loneliness and penniless. His remains were not returned to his family. They were only found back by chance and since then preserved in the Museum of Natural History in Mons. In 2015 a citizen collective in Mons decided to pay tribute to Julius Koch. Crosset (1851-1915) was a Verviers-based photographer.
2. The cabinet card shows the 2 Salvadoran siblings Máximo and Bartola, both with microcephaly and cognitive developmental disability who were exhibited in human zoos in the 19th c. After they were given to a merchant they were promoted as "Aztec Children" and a whole Mesoamerican story was constructed to juice their touring in the U.S. being exhibited before President Millard Fillmore at the White House and in Europe before Queen Victoria. In 1860 Barnum's American Museum had enlisted and archived "The Living Aztecs" among the thirteen human curiosities in the museum. The interest in their actual origins continued as they were being exhibited throughout Europe probably until the late 1800s. The note on the verso tells us about a "Présentation des Aztèques" around 1895 in Brussels at the "Musée du Nord". A school boy named Edgard Paridaens presumably bought this photograph during a school visit. Nestler (1845-1898) was a Brussels-based photographer active in the 1880s-90s.
Ref. Directory of Belgian Photographers.