Miniature fan with 'Tom thumb' photographs

Miniature fan, 5cm long in pinchback. Opens with 4 leaves of photographs with 2 end panels with decorative design. Miniature albumen prints 1.5 x 1cm reductions from CDV pictures of GeneralTom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton) and family. 8 pictures in 4 pairs behind oval masks.

Carte-de-visites fueled the rise of celebrity photographic media. This fan brooch contains miniature photographs of the wedding of Charles Sherwood Stratton to Lavinia Warren. Stratton, who was born with a form of restricted growth, performed under the stage name of ‘Tom Thumb’ in the controversial American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum’s travelling shows. Barnum’s shows made Stratton internationally famous, generating a mass market for photographic souvenirs. Photographs of people with physical differences were popular in the nineteenth century, which was a time when the human body was the topic of increasing scientific study and popular interest. However, mass media representations of people with bodies outside of the range of what was considered ‘normal’ were often harmful and exploitative.