FREAKS & SIDESHOWS

From the advent of photography in the 19th and into the 20th century, medical students, often in secrecy, took photographs of themselves with the cadavers that they dissected: their first patients. Learn More

Melvin Burkhart the Anatomical Wonder; Zip the Pinhead; Chang and Eng, the original Siamese twins; Johnny Eck, the King of the Freaks; Koo Koo the Birdgirl; and 45 more fascinating sideshow freaks both famous and obscure are immortalized in Drew Friedman’s delightful portraits. Learn More

This is an informal history of sensational, scientific, silly, satisfying and startling attractions based on seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century broadsides from the Ricky Jay's extraordinary collection. Learn More

The Education of a Carnival Con Artist Learn More

FREAK BABYLON is a sometimes startling, sometimes disturbing documentary of the history of one of mankind’s most fascinating sciences – teratology – and its shadowy cultural correlative, the Freakshow, from ancient times to the present day. Learn More

Freaks & Fire is a free-falling leap into the world of radical circus. Learn More

A colorful history of the carnival sideshow and its distinctive banner art. Learn More

The Re/Search edition of this long out-of-print classic book based on Mannix's personal acquaintance with sideshow stars such as the Alligator Man and the Monkey Woman. Learn More

GEEK LOVE is the story of a carnival family, the Binewskis. Learn More