Alice Doherty was a girl born in 1887 with a rare genetic condition called hypertrichosis lanuginose which caused her to grow hair on her face. While at first glance, this may look like a family that dressed the dog up in human clothes for a photo opportunity, this is actually just a photo of Alice’s family with her condition on full display.
At the turn of the 20th century, sideshows were a popular attraction and Doherty’s bizarre condition made her a natural fit for freak shows, much like the similarly disfigured Elephant Man (John Merrick) or Giant of Illiinois (Robert Wadlow). Alice toured America for a few years, making money at fairs and other sideshow events, before retiring and dying at just 46 years of age.
What’s most uncanny about this photo is just how ordinary it seems. Everything else about the picture makes the family look like your typical turn-of-the-century midwestern family, but then you’ve got Alice right there in the middle turning the whole picture into the stuff of nightmares.
