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Tom Thumbs gets married...
Tom Thumbs gets married...
Item # 567470
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February 11, 1863
NEW YORK HERALD, February 11, 1863
* Tom Thumb gets married
Front page first column heads: "The Tom Thumb Wedding The Lilliputian Bride and Bridegroom, with the Humbug-Brobdingnag of the Museum and the Pious-Brobdingnag of the Church Wonderful Curiosity to See this Wonderful Event The Marriage The Reception at the Metropolitan Hotel" and more.
Civil War headlines includes: "The Fight In The Ogeechee" "The Privateer Alabama" "Interesting From Key West" "The Negro Emancipation Jublilee" and much more.
Eight pages, little margin wear but no text loss, otherwise in good condition.
wikipedia notes: Stratton's marriage on February 10, 1863, to another person of similar height, Lavinia Warren, became front-page news. The wedding took place at Grace Episcopal Church and the wedding reception was held at the Metropolitan Hotel. The couple stood atop a grand piano in New York City's Metropolitan Hotel to greet some 2,000 guests. The best man at the wedding was George Washington Morrison ("Commodore") Nutt, another dwarf performer in Barnum's employ. The maid of honor was Minnie Warren, Lavinia's even smaller sister. Following the wedding, the couple was received by President Lincoln at the White House.
Under Barnum's management, Stratton became a wealthy man. He owned a house in the fashionable part of New York and a steam yacht, and he had a wardrobe of fine clothes. He also owned a specially adapted home on one of Connecticut's Thimble Islands. When Barnum got into financial difficulty, Stratton bailed him out. Later, they became business partners. Stratton made his final appearance in England in 1878.
Stratton's grave at Mountain Grove Cemetery
On January 10, 1883, Stratton was staying at the Newhall House in Milwaukee when a fire broke out, which Milwaukee historian John Gurda would call "one of the worst hotel fires in American history." More than 71 people died, but Tom and Lavinia were saved by their manager, Sylvester Bleeker.[4]
Six months later, Stratton died suddenly of a stroke. He was 45 years old, 102 cm (3 feet 4 inches) tall and weighed 32 kg (70 pounds). He had become portly in the last years of his life and by the time of his death, he looked quite different from the tiny and slim person he was from his discovery up to the early 1870s. It seemed that he had never fully recovered from his narrow escape from the hotel fire.[4] Over 10,000 people attended the funeral. P.T. Barnum purchased a life-sized statue of Tom Thumb and placed it as a grave stone at Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Lavinia Warren is interred next to him with a simple grave stone that reads, "His Wife."
It is very likely that Stratton's extreme shortness was caused by damage to, or the malfunctioning of, his pituitary gland. X-rays were not discovered until 1895, 12 years after Stratton's death. It wasn't until 1915 that it was determined that the pituitary gland was responsible for the production of human growth hormone. However, during Stratton's lifetime, no one was able to determine the underlying cause of his growth problems.
* Tom Thumb gets married
Front page first column heads: "The Tom Thumb Wedding The Lilliputian Bride and Bridegroom, with the Humbug-Brobdingnag of the Museum and the Pious-Brobdingnag of the Church Wonderful Curiosity to See this Wonderful Event The Marriage The Reception at the Metropolitan Hotel" and more.
Civil War headlines includes: "The Fight In The Ogeechee" "The Privateer Alabama" "Interesting From Key West" "The Negro Emancipation Jublilee" and much more.
Eight pages, little margin wear but no text loss, otherwise in good condition.
wikipedia notes: Stratton's marriage on February 10, 1863, to another person of similar height, Lavinia Warren, became front-page news. The wedding took place at Grace Episcopal Church and the wedding reception was held at the Metropolitan Hotel. The couple stood atop a grand piano in New York City's Metropolitan Hotel to greet some 2,000 guests. The best man at the wedding was George Washington Morrison ("Commodore") Nutt, another dwarf performer in Barnum's employ. The maid of honor was Minnie Warren, Lavinia's even smaller sister. Following the wedding, the couple was received by President Lincoln at the White House.
Under Barnum's management, Stratton became a wealthy man. He owned a house in the fashionable part of New York and a steam yacht, and he had a wardrobe of fine clothes. He also owned a specially adapted home on one of Connecticut's Thimble Islands. When Barnum got into financial difficulty, Stratton bailed him out. Later, they became business partners. Stratton made his final appearance in England in 1878.
Stratton's grave at Mountain Grove Cemetery
On January 10, 1883, Stratton was staying at the Newhall House in Milwaukee when a fire broke out, which Milwaukee historian John Gurda would call "one of the worst hotel fires in American history." More than 71 people died, but Tom and Lavinia were saved by their manager, Sylvester Bleeker.[4]
Six months later, Stratton died suddenly of a stroke. He was 45 years old, 102 cm (3 feet 4 inches) tall and weighed 32 kg (70 pounds). He had become portly in the last years of his life and by the time of his death, he looked quite different from the tiny and slim person he was from his discovery up to the early 1870s. It seemed that he had never fully recovered from his narrow escape from the hotel fire.[4] Over 10,000 people attended the funeral. P.T. Barnum purchased a life-sized statue of Tom Thumb and placed it as a grave stone at Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Lavinia Warren is interred next to him with a simple grave stone that reads, "His Wife."
It is very likely that Stratton's extreme shortness was caused by damage to, or the malfunctioning of, his pituitary gland. X-rays were not discovered until 1895, 12 years after Stratton's death. It wasn't until 1915 that it was determined that the pituitary gland was responsible for the production of human growth hormone. However, during Stratton's lifetime, no one was able to determine the underlying cause of his growth problems.
Category: Yankee
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