ABSTRACT
Human zoos and freak shows, the display of non-Western peoples, people with disabilities and other human oddities at entertainment sites, were wildly popular in the US during the last half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. The formally organized part of the definition is crucial for it distinguishes freak shows from earlier exhibitions of single attractions that were not attached to organizations such as circuses, carnivals, museums, and international fairs. In the nineteenth century, the US was moving from an agrarian, family and community-based society to one in which cities and formal organizations like factories, businesses, hospitals, and government agencies would dominate. The freak show joined the burgeoning popular amusement industry, organizations that housed an occupation with a particular way of life and a special deceitful approach to the world. That culture is crucial to understanding showmen and the manufacture of freaks. Showmen developed distinct ways of displaying, or modes of presenting, exhibits.
