Five CDVs document named little-person performers from the American circus and sideshow world of the 1860s through 1880s, each identified by printed text on the recto or verso. The group includes Admiral Dot, billed as appearing with P.T. Barnum's Traveling World's Fair at sixteen years old, twenty-five inches high, and weighing nineteen pounds; Gen. Grant Jr., identified on the reverse as "The Smallest Man Living," twelve years old, twenty-three inches high, and eighteen and a half pounds, photographed by Stacy at 601 Broadway as he appeared at Barnum's Museum; Maj. S.E. Houghton, twenty years old, thirty-one inches in height, and forty-one pounds; the German Midgets Herman and Augusta Rice, photographed by Charles Eisenmann at 229 Bowery, New York; and Madam Shaw, age forty-two, twenty-seven and a half inches, thirty-two pounds, posed with her daughter Minnie, born June 23, 1869, made at J. Frank Smith's Parlor Art Gallery, Fairfield, Illinois.

Admiral Dot, born Leopold Kahn in 1858, was one of Barnum's most promoted attractions in the 1870s and is well documented in circus history. Gen. Grant Jr. appeared at Barnum's American Museum in New York, and Charles Eisenmann's Bowery studio was the preeminent commercial photographer of sideshow performers during this era, supplying carte-de-visite portraits for sale to the public as souvenirs.

The Admiral Dot CDV was published by E. and H.T. Anthony and Co., 591 Broadway, New York. The Maj. Houghton card was published by Ranger and Dwelle's Photograph Parlors, 28 East Genesee Street, Franklin Buildings. Dealer catalog notations appear in pencil on several reverses.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer