Playbill

Playbill, promoting an exhibition of performers often historically referred to in offence terms such as 'freaks' or 'curios'. The performers at this show, held at St James's Great Hall, Regent Street and Piccadilly are described as 'Two-headed Nightingale Company', a pair of African American conjoined twins, Christine and Millie; Anna Swan a 'giantess' from Nova Scotia and her husband Captain M.V. Bates a 'giant' from Kentucky billed as the 'largest married couple in the world'. The reverse of the bill carries reviews of performances before the Queen and Prince of Wales in 1871.
The twins were born into slavery in North Carolina in 1851. Publicly exhibited as a curiosity by their owners, they performed before audiences in America and Europe. They were reunited with their mother, and gained their freedom from enslavement in 1863.
This playbill is from the first UK tour of Anna Swan and Martin Van Buren Bates shortly after their wedding at St Martins-in-the-Fields, London. Anna who had a height of 7ft 6 inches had previously been 'exhibited' by P.T Barnum. Her husband was 8ft. The wedding in St. Martin’s was an auspicious London event. Queen Victoria gifted Anna a cluster diamond ring and a giant watch and chain to her husband.