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Mother Shipton, the Witch of York.

Mother Shipton: The Witch of York, England’s Prophetess, the Devil’s Daughter, or Hoax?

Human Oddities, Paranormal
The mouth of Hell is no place to be.

A Fiery Tour of Hell for Children and other Youngsters

Books
Illustration of John Slater's refusal to take Dunninger's $21,000 challenge. From Science and Invention, September 1929.

The Night Joseph Dunninger Spooked a Spiritualist with a $21,000 Check

Paranormal
The Iron Chair, as seen in the Amsterdam Museum of Torture. Photo by Marc Hartzman.

The Iron Chair and Jean Calas’ Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day in 1762

Misc.
Wax figure of Hannah Beswick at Ripley's Believe It Or Not in Amsterdam.

The Strange Afterlife of the Eccentric Hannah Beswick

Human Oddities
Half flesh, half skull. Courtesy of Hans van den Bogaard/Museum Vrolik

Anatomy Takes on All Forms at Amsterdam’s Museum Vrolik

Human Oddities, Science
Hastings' 1862 book about the excreta of reptiles.

Four Crappy Ailments Once Believed to Have Been Cured by Reptile Poop

Books, Science
An ad for Clarence Willard, "The Man Who Grows," in the National Vaudeville Artists annual, 1925.

The Man Who Grows Reached the Height of Vaudeville and Astounded Scientists

Human Oddities
Illustration from H.G. Wells' "The First Men In The Moon" by E. Hering, 1901.

A Rather Brief History of Life on the Moon

Science
Aimée The Human Fly, one of the Victorian-Era ceiling walkers.

Blood Rushed to Their Heads, And Sometimes Beyond: Meet the Victorian Ceiling Walkers

Books, Human Oddities
Hereward Carrington, in 1916's film, The Mysteries of Myra.

True Ghost Stories, According to Psychic Investigator Hereward Carrington

Books, Paranormal
Lorraine Warren at the Mark Twain House.

Bringing Lorraine Warren Back From the Grave

Paranormal
Fred P. Evans slate writing, 1885.

A Few Brief Words and Illustrations Brought to You From the Dead

Paranormal
LOT 161 Louis Thomas Jerome Auzoux Male Anatomical Model on Stand with Wood Display Cabinet. Photo courtesy of Doyle.

Looking for a 19th-Century Anatomical Model or a Ceramic Poppyseed Bagel? The Doyle Oddities Auction Has It All.

Curious Creatures, Misc.
Cemeterio de la Recoleta. Photo by Marc Hartzman.

That Time When Body Snatchers Entered the City of the Dead

Misc.
Vaucanson's automata, including the pooping duck in the center.

The Greatest Robot of the 1700s was a Pooping Duck

Curious Creatures
Charlotte Canda's grave at Greenwood Cemetery in New York.

Charlotte Canda: A Tragic Death and Magnificent Monument

Misc.
Robert Wadlow. Marc Hartzman Collection.

Robert Wadlow, the Tallest Man Ever, Should’ve Been Nine Feet Tall

Human Oddities
Medical models, plus the headpiece from Robin Williams' movie, Bicentennial Man, at Early Electrics.

Where to Find a 19th-Century Anatomical Model of a Horse and Other Things You Didn’t Know You Needed to Have

Curious Creatures, Human Oddities, Misc., Science

Murder, Accidental Deaths and Other Misfortunes When Hypnosis Goes Wrong

Books
In 1922, a case of a human tail bolstered the case for evolution.

A Few Curious Tales of Human Tails

Human Oddities
The Black Scorpion holding his hand. Photo courtesy of Karen Shepard.

Black Scorpion is Selling His Super Happy Fun Hands

Human Oddities

The Sacred Hairy Family of Burma, Lobster Boy’s Hand, and Other Oddities from The Freakatorium That Could Be Yours

Human Oddities
Entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. Where the Boroughs of the Dead walk begins.

Are There Ghosts of People Who Spoke to Ghosts? Meet the Spiritualists of Green-Wood Cemetery.

Paranormal
Mariam Dadgar in her fortune telling booth. Note the photos of bearded ladies from the past on the wall. Photo courtesy of Mariam Dadgar.

An Interview with Mariam Dadgar, the Fortune-Telling Bearded Lady

Human Oddities
A review of Haunted Houses from The Sun, January 27, 1924.

A Peek into The Haunted Houses of Camille Flammarion

Books, Paranormal
Houdini with the spirits of President and Mrs. Harding. From "The Case For and Against Psychical Belief."

Harry Houdini vs the Spirit Photographers and the Ghosts That Weren’t

Paranormal
Shridhar Chillal's fingernails, on display at the New York Ripley's Believe It Or Not! in Times Square. Photo by Marc Hartzman.

A Work of Human Art 66 Years in the Making

Human Oddities
Courtesy of George the Giant McArthur.

George the Giant’s Strange Museum of Oddities and Wonders Will Creep You Out

Curious Creatures, Human Oddities, Misc.
Gua, the chimpanzee and her human brother, Donald, as reported on by the Santa Cruz Evening News, July 15, 1933.

Can a Chimpanzee Become Human?

Curious Creatures
X-ray of Cromwell's head showing the iron spike from Westminster Hall.

The 360th Anniversary of Oliver Cromwell’s Afterlife

Books, Politics
At Ward Hall's house in Gibtown. From left to right: Ward, Bruce Snowdon holding a two-headed chicken, little Pete Terhurne, and me. December, 2003.

Thank You Ward Hall, King of the Sideshows, for all the Wonders of the World

Human Oddities
Headline about Ezekiel Eads from the Morning Union, April 14, 1892.

Ezekiel Eads, the Earless Man Who Heard Through His Mouth

Human Oddities
Harper's Weekly reported on the Mumler case in its May 8, 1869 edition. Hartzman Collection.

William Mumler and the Great Spirit Photograph Craze of the 1860s

Paranormal
Museum of the Weird.

The Museum of the Weird Lives Up to its Name

Curious Creatures, Human Oddities
Some see rats. Charles Domery saw dinner. (Illustration from Jean de La Fontaines fables by Gustave Doré), via Wikimedia Commons.

The Man Who Ate Anything and a Whole Lot of It

Human Oddities
The ghost of Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Outwits Death and Keeps Writing Clever Aphorisms

Books, Paranormal
Poltergeist in Haunted People.

Just a Simple Case of Poltergeist from 1925

Books, Paranormal

Edgar Allan Poe’s Poem from the Spirit World

Books, Paranormal
The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel.

The Twisted and Beautifully Bizarre Creatures from The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel

Books, Curious Creatures

Happy 208th Birthday to The Greatest Showman on Earth, P.T. Barnum

Human Oddities
The History of Hen Fever: A Humorous Record.

A Brief History of the Brief History of Hen Fever

Curious Creatures
Mina Crandon with ectoplasm on her face.

Exposing Ectoplasm and the Fraudulent Mediums Who Coughed It Up

Paranormal
Squirrel Soup, from God Made Me Do It.

God Told This Man to Fast for 52 Days, Then Let Him Drink Squirrel Soup

Books
Stereoview of Chinese "Lily Feet." With a viewer, you can see her unwrapped feet in 3D. Marc Hartzman Collection.

The Golden Lotus: A Millennia of Tortured Feet and Fashion

Human Oddities
Giovanni and Giacomo, the Tocci Brothers. Marc Hartzman Collection.

A Few Things to Know About the Extraordinary Tocci Brothers

Human Oddities
Hippolyte Baraduc took this photo of his wife 20 minutes after her death. The misty cloud, he claimed, was her soul.

Photographing Thoughts and Souls with Hippolyte Baraduc

Paranormal
Thomas Dick and Jupiter.

How many beings lived on Jupiter in 1830?

Books, Science
J Fred Muggs with Dave Garroway.

J. Fred Muggs, the Chimpanzee Star Who Was Viral Before Viral Was A Thing

Curious Creatures
An engraving showing (from left to right) a monopod or sciapod, a female cyclops, conjoined twins, a blemmye, and a cynocephaly. From Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia (1544). Via Wikimedia Commons.

The Monopod, or The One-Legged Man with a Giant Foot To Block the Sun

Curious Creatures, Misc.
A woodcut of the Panotti from the Nuremberg Chronicles.

A Rather Brief Visit to the Panotti on “All Ears Islands”

Books, Curious Creatures
Charlie Chaplin's grave. By Giramondo1 from Vila Isabel, Brasil (Charlie Chaplin, R.I.P.Uploaded by Manoillon) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Silent Film Star Charlie Chaplin Makes Noise After Being Stolen From His Grave

Misc.
Dynasphere

The Dynasphere: The Car of the Future that Never Made it to the Future

Misc., Science
Fred Ott's Sneeze, frame by frame. Taken January 9, 1894.

Fred Ott and the First Sneeze Ever Caught on Film

Misc., Science
Edmond Perrier's Martians illustrated in the New York Times Magazine, 1912.

The French Botanist Who Figured Out What Martians Look Like

Science
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