Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Freak Show Images From The Ron Becker Collection, Robert Bogdan

The Courier

This article details the rise of freak shows from 1840 to 1940 in America, drawing from the extensive collection found in the Ron Becker Collection in the Syracuse University Special Collections. The exhibits played upon the superstitions and prejudices of popular American culture, and every exhibit was a fraud of some sort. The photographs of these "human curiosities" fascinated Ron Becker, who amassed a collection of the photos, mostly from the photographers Charles Eisenmann and Frank Wendt.