Carte-de-Visite Portrait of Mademoiselle Zana, the Only Bearded Russian Lady, ca. 1880s

Mademoiselle Zana was a 19th-century sideshow performer promoted as “The Only Bearded Russian Lady.” She gained notable publicity while touring in the late 1800s, appearing in dime museums, circuses, and novelty exhibitions across Europe and the United States.

As was common in 19th-century sideshows, managers exaggerated or fabricated performers' backgrounds to create an exotic narrative. Presenting her as “Russian” added a sense of foreign intrigue to Western audiences.

Her image survives largely through cabinet cards and carte-de-visite (CdV) studio portraits, such as those produced by notable photographers like Charles Eisenmann of New York, who specialized in sideshow portraits during the late 1800s.

In modern medical terms, her condition would likely be recognized as severe hirsutism or hypertrichosis, which causes excessive hair growth in patterns typically associated with males. During the Victorian era, individuals with such conditions often found employment and independence in dime museums and traveling exhibition networks.

The Last Photo of Christopher McCandless, Shortly Before Dying From Starvation, 1992

This haunting image is the final self-portrait taken by Christopher McCandless, shortly before dying from starvation. The note he is holding says “I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!”. It was found on an undeveloped roll of film inside his camera after his body was discovered in the Alaskan wilderness.

In May 1990, after graduating from Emory University, McCandless severed contact with his family, donated his remaining savings to charity, abandoned his car, and set off on a nomadic journey across North America. Driven by idealistic philosophy, transcendentalist literature, and a desire to escape modern society, he eventually hitched a ride to Alaska in April 1992.

After hiking along the Stampede Trail near Denali National Park, McCandless came across an abandoned 1946 International Harvester bus (known as Fairbanks Bus 142), which served as his shelter. He spent roughly 113 days surviving off local flora, small game, and a moose he managed to hunt.

When he attempted to return to civilization in July 1992, he found the Teklanika River swollen with glacial runoff and impassable. Trapped, he returned to the bus. Facing starvation and potentially weakened by toxic seeds (Hedysarum mackenzii or alkaloid poisoning from wild potato seeds), his condition deteriorated rapidly.

McCandless died in late August 1992 inside Bus 142 at the age of 24. Local hunters discovered his body on September 6, 1992, weighing only 67 pounds (30 kg).

His story was immortalized by Jon Krakauer in the 1996 bestselling book Into the Wild, which was later adapted into the acclaimed 2007 film directed by Sean Penn. His journey continues to spark debate between those who view him as a romantic, free-spirited idealist and those who regard his journey as unprepared and reckless.

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The Casket for Three: The Story Behind the Three-Person Suicide Coffin at National Museum of Funeral History

In the mid-1930s, a young couple experienced the devastating death of their infant daughter. Overcome by unbearable grief, the parents felt they could not continue living without her. Together, they formed a tragic pact: the father would murder the mother and then end his own life so the family could be reunited in death.

Before executing their plan, they wanted their final arrangements secured. They approached a local funeral home and commissioned a custom, triple-wide casket designed to accommodate both adults side-by-side, with space reserved in the middle to lay their disinterred child.

Because of its non-standard dimensions and custom interior, building the oversized wooden casket took several months. During that period, the acute shock of their loss began to fade. The passage of time allowed the couple to move through the worst of their acute grief, and they ultimately decided against ending their lives. They relocated, moving out west toward California, and abandoned the murder-suicide pact, leaving the completed custom casket behind at the mortuary without picking it up. 

Nearly two decades later, in the 1950s, the funeral home received a letter from the mother. Her husband had recently passed away from natural causes, and she was writing to request a refund for the custom casket they had paid for decades earlier. The current funeral director had to decline: the business had changed ownership twice since the 1930s, and there was no accounting record allowing for a payout. He requested that she arrange to have the casket removed from storage, but she never replied or contacted them again.

The custom casket, the only known three-person casket in existence, remained in storage until it was eventually donated to the National Museum of Funeral History. Today, it is exhibited not as a morbid curiosity, but as a poignant artifact showing that even the most overwhelming grief can soften over time.

Eva Peron’s Embalmed Body and Its Strange Afterlife

On July 26, 1952 when Eva Peron died, her husband was at her bedside along with Dr. Pedro Ara. Ara was a well known anatomist and very skilled at the preservation of the body. He came to Argentina in 1925 to organize the anatomy museum for a medical college. He had learned embalming from some of the best physicians in Europe. It is believed he had preserved through embalming hundreds maybe thousands of human remains.

Eva Peron was embalmed in the room she died in. President Peron gave him complete control and privacy while engaged in the operation. At the completion of the preparation the President expressed his satisfaction. She was washed, dressed, her hair prepared by her own hair dresser. Her nails were polished by her personal maid. The casket was a fully open mahogany with a glass top. Her remains were moved to the Ministry of Labor where she would lie in state until her state funeral on August 9. Millions of people came to pay there respects to her during the interval. For his final treatment Dr. Ara had her remains moved to a laboratory the day after her funeral. He immerses the body in a chemical solution in the belief that it would provide a permanent preservation. It would remain there until the construction of her monument was complete.

The embalmed body of Argentinian politician Eva Peron, 1952

Political unrest gripped Argentina and President Peron was forced to flee to Paraguay on September 20, 1955. However, the new President believed he must rid the country of the Peron’s affection. He ordered the military with the help of a famous German commando leader to seize her remains.

The story continues, that her remains were sent to Bonn, Germany in 1956. Pope Pius XII gives consent for it to be buried near Rome but was moved one more time to Musocco Cemetery in Milan in 1957 under the name Maria Maggi.

Back in Argentina during this time it was not clear where her remains were taken. Those loyal to the Peron’s would begin a long search for it. The Peron loyalist, kidnapped the current president of Argentina in 1970 with the hopes of having him to tell them where she was. He was found dead several days later.  The end came in September 1971 when a “man” appears at the Milan cemetery claiming Maria Maggi was his sister and he wished to have her disinterred. This was accomplished with extraordinary speed. The remains arrived at the residence of Juan Peron in Madrid a few days later.

The embalmed body of Argentina’s Eva Peron is seen in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires after it was returned from Italy in 1974. The body was taken out of Argentina three years after her death from cancer following a 1955 military coup which ousted her husband Juan Peron.

Dr Ara wiith the preserved corpse of Eva Peron.

Dr. Ara also lived in Madrid and the following day began repairs of the body that was now 16 years since being viewed and 19 years since embalming. A new coffin held Evita with it being placed in the Peron home dining room, where the current Mr. and Mrs. Peron ate dinner each evening. Juan and his wife returned to Argentina to lead the country but without Evita in 1973.

Political unrest there led to the return of her remains the following year and she was placed next to her husband in the Presidential residence. Her coffin was open for viewing while his was closed. Evita’s post death travels end in October 1976 when she returned to her family in Recoleta Cemetery. Her husband was buried in his family cemetery in Buenos Aires.

(via The Morte Girls)

35 Weird Vintage Photos of Hidden Adults Holding Children in the 19th Century

These weird vintage photos reveal a curious and once-common practice from the 19th century, in which adults (often mothers) were hidden beneath fabric or behind furniture while holding young children steady for the camera. Because early photographic exposures required long sitting times, infants and toddlers frequently needed support to remain still.

Although these images are usually called “hidden mother” photographs, the concealed figure was sometimes a man. Some photo historians have also suggested that the hidden adult may occasionally have been the photographer’s female assistant, who helped prepare sitters and held the children when needed.

With partially obscured figures draped in cloth or blended into the background, the resulting portraits appear strange and almost ghostly to modern eyes. Today they offer a fascinating glimpse into the technical challenges and inventive solutions of early photography.

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Photos of New York City Streets Covered in Dust and Debris Following Twin Towers Collapse

On September 11, 2001, the catastrophic collapse of the World Trade Center Twin Towers instantly transformed the bustling streets of Lower Manhattan into a desolate landscape covered in thick dust and debris.

The collapse of the multi-ton skyscrapers generated massive, fast-moving clouds of dust and ash that swept through the streets like a localized storm. The plume was so immense that lighter particles carried nearly three miles away, reaching as far north as the Empire State Building.

Passersby, office workers, and first responders were completely enveloped in the plume, leaving survivors heavily coated in a thick layer of gray powder. The density of the smoke and settled particles completely blocked out daylight, plunging nearby city blocks into near-total darkness during the middle of the morning. The streets immediately surrounding the complex were buried under feet of pulverized building materials, twisted structural steel, smashed vehicles, and shattered glass.

Scientific analysis conducted by institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published via the National Institutes of Health (NIH) detailed that the settled material was far from normal dust. Roughly 80% to 90% of the mixture was highly alkaline and consisted of: crushed concrete and cement, gypsum (from drywall), synthetic vitreous fibers (such as fiberglass and slag wool), toxic contaminants including asbestos, silica, heavy metals, and carcinogenic combustion by-products from the ongoing fires.

The area, which quickly became known as Ground Zero, spanned roughly 16 acres. Because the dust was easily resuspended by wind or movement, it remained a severe respiratory hazard for months. A massive cleanup operation involving thousands of workers continued around the clock until the site was officially cleared eight months later, in May 2002.

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The Clearest Video of American Airlines Flight 11 Striking the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001

Jules Clément Naudet and Thomas Gédéon Naudet are French-American filmmakers. The brothers, residents of the United States since 1989 and citizens since 1999, were in New York City at the time of the September 11 attacks to film a documentary on members of the Engine 7, Ladder 1 firehouse in Lower Manhattan.

Jules captured the clearest footage of the first airplane, American Airlines Flight 11, hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center when he rode with Battalion 1 to investigate a suspected gas leak in a storm drain at the intersection of Church and Lispenard streets while filming a documentary about the FDNY. The footage shot in 2001 was made into the 2002 documentary 9/11. The video camera that Jules was using that captured Flight 11 crashing into the World Trade Center is now on display in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Photographs Taken by NYPD Officer Walter Taylor Before the Collapse of the South Tower on September 11, 2001

On September 11, 2001, at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, striking floors 77 through 85. This occurred about 17 minutes after the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, had hit the North Tower.

After the first plane hit the North Tower, many people in the South Tower began to evacuate on their own, despite an initial announcement on the public address system advising them to stay in their offices.

The impact of Flight 175 caused catastrophic structural damage and ignited a massive fire. The plane’s high speed and off-center impact left the building unbalanced and weakened the steel columns and trusses that supported the floors.

The crash and subsequent fire trapped hundreds of people on the floors above the impact zone. While one of the three stairwells in the South Tower remained partially intact, allowing some people to escape from above the impact zone, many others were unable to get out.

The fires, fueled by the jet fuel, weakened the building’s steel structure. As the steel began to heat up, the floor trusses started to sag, pulling away from the outer columns. This process, known as “creep,” eventually led to the failure of the core columns. The weakening of the steel structure caused the floors above the impact zone to drop onto the floors below, initiating a chain reaction of progressive collapse that led to the entire tower’s fall.

These rarely seen photographs taken by NYPD officer Walter Taylor before the South Tower’s collapse at 9:59 a.m. (56 minutes after impact) on September 11, 2001:

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Private Footage of the 9/11 Terrorist Attack Shot by a College Student From a NYU Dormitory

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Caroline Dries was a student at New York University (NYU) residing on a high floor at 200 Water Street in Lower Manhattan with her roommate, Megan. Awakened at 8:46 a.m. by the sound of American Airlines Flight 11 hitting the North Tower, Dries began filming with a handheld camcorder she had bought just a week earlier.

The camera captured the raw real-time reactions of Dries and her dorm mates. At 9:03 a.m., while zooming in on falling debris and people jumping from the North Tower, United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower live on camera. The shocking moment led to panicked reactions as the students realized it was an intentional attack rather than an accident.

Horrified, Dries and her roommate briefly fled into the street but returned to their dorm room due to confusion and chaos outside. Her video later captured the collapse of the South Tower at 9:59 a.m.

Dries held onto the raw tapes for nearly a decade, finding it difficult to process the gravity of what she had captured, which included heartbreaking details like victims falling from the towers. She eventually shared her story and footage publicly around the 10th anniversary of the attacks on programs for networks like the CNN Student Footage Interview and The History Channel.

Dries later pursued a highly successful career in television, working as a writer and executive producer on major series including Smallville, The Vampire Diaries, and creating Batwoman for The CW. Despite her Hollywood success, she has noted that the raw 9/11 tape remains the most significant and compelling piece of film she will ever be a part of.

Reg Spiers, the Man Who Mailed Himself From London to Australia in a Wooden Box, 1964

Reg (Reginald) Spiers, an Australian javelin thrower from Adelaide, air-freighted himself from London to Perth in a wooden crate in October 1964 because he was penniless and needed to get home for his young daughter’s birthday.

Spiers (then 22) had competed in the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth (finishing fifth) and was a strong national-level thrower. In 1964 he went to Britain to train and try to recover from an injury in hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. That bid failed. Broke after financing his trip and working briefly in cargo at Heathrow, which gave him practical knowledge of freight rules and crate sizes, he was desperate to return to Australia.

John McSorley built this wooden box for his friend Reg Spiers in 1964.

Airport workers at Perth, Western Australia, with the packing case Spiers traveled in.

The discovery of the box at Perth Airport in 1964 caused a media storm.

“I worked in the export cargo section, so I knew about cash-on-delivery with freight,” Spiers said. “I’d seen animals come through all the time and I thought, ‘If they can do it, I can do it.’”

He enlisted his friend and fellow javelin thrower John McSorley, who had carpentry experience), to build a wooden box measuring roughly 5 ft × 3 ft × 2 ft 6 in (about 1.5 m × 0.9 m × 0.75 m), the largest size typically accepted for air freight at the time. The crate had internal straps to secure him during handling, latches or spigots operable from the inside at either end so he could exit regardless of orientation, and gaps for air (sometimes described as pennies wedged between slats). It was large enough for him (over 6 ft / ~1.8–2 m tall) to sit with legs straight or lie with knees bent.

They labeled the cargo as “plastic emulsion,” paint, or similar nondescript material bound for a fictitious Australian shoe company / “Mr. Graham” in Perth, and sent it cash-on-delivery (COD) so no payment was required upfront. Spiers packed limited supplies (tinned food such as spaghetti, a torch, blanket, pillow, water bottle, and a container for urine; some mention a change of clothes or suit, passport, and small snacks). On October 17, 1964, McSorley and friends delivered the sealed crate to Heathrow freight. The journey on an Air India flight (via stops including Paris and Bombay/Mumbai) lasted about 63 hours including delays and covered roughly 11,000–13,000 miles to Perth.

It was far from smooth: a lengthy fog delay at Heathrow kept him confined for many hours before takeoff; he briefly exited the crate in flight (e.g., between London and Paris) to relieve himself and nearly left evidence behind; in Mumbai the crate was left inverted on the hot tarmac for hours; he came close to severe dehydration/heat exhaustion; there were rough handling incidents, including a near-drop by forklift.

Reg Spiers competed in the javelin in the 1962 Commonwealth Games.

John McSorley in Twickenham, 1964.

John McSorley (left), Reg Spiers (centre) and a friend in Twickenham, 1964.

Upon arrival in Perth the crate went to a freight area. Spiers got out, left the unpaid COD bill, and made his way onward, hitchhiking hundreds of miles toward Adelaide, where he arrived in time for the birthday. Spiers’ story stayed quiet until a worried McSorley contacted a sports journalist to confirm that his friend had arrived safely. The story exploded into international news, turning Spiers into a folk hero.

However, his life took darker turns in the decades that followed. Spiers later became involved in the drug trade and went on the run across multiple continents. He was arrested in Sri Lanka in 1984, briefly handed a death sentence for drug smuggling, but successfully appealed and returned to Australia where he served a prison sentence. His incredible life story was later documented by McSorley’s family in the book Out Of The Box: The Highs and Lows of a Champion Smuggler.

Reg Spiers outside the Sri Lankan High Court during his trial for the possession of narcotic drugs in 1987.

Footprint Overshoes Made for Use by Special Operations Executive Agents Operating in South-East Asia During WII

During World War II, Britain’s clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) developed custom rubber footprint overshoes, officially termed “sneakers,” to protect agents operating behind enemy lines in South-East Asia and the Pacific.

If an operative stepped onto a beach from a submarine or moved through a muddy jungle trail, their standard military bootprints would instantly alert Japanese coastal patrols to Allied activity.

To counter this, camouflage specialist Hugh Vandeleur designed rubber soles molded into the exact shape of bare human feet. When tied over conventional combat boots using integrated canvas tapes, the overshoes left tracks that perfectly mimicked local, barefoot residents. This misdirection successfully hid the presence of covert teams, such as those led by legendary operative F. Spencer Chapman. Beyond masking identity, some variants of these overshoes could also be adjusted or reversed to disguise the direction the agent was traveling.

They were cast from flexible, heavy-duty rubber to withstand maritime landings and suppress the crunching sounds of footsteps. Each mold was designed with fabric tying tapes that securely wrapped around the ankles and upper soles of an agent’s standard footwear.

While brilliantly creative in theory, the footprint overshoes suffered from serious practical limitations. Because they had to fit over large European military boots, the cast “bare feet” were often disproportionately massive compared to the actual footprints of the local populations they tried to mimic. Additionally, operatives found them bulky, clumsy, and difficult to balance in, comparing the awkward movement to walking in snowshoes.

Despite limited operational use due to their clunkiness, the concept proved highly influential. Decades later, during the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army’s elite MACV-SOG commandos revived the exact same concept, wearing specialized “bark soles” or barefoot-molded jungle boots to mask their movements along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Mechanized Gorilla Headgear Worn by Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan in “White Pongo” (1945)

The mechanized gorilla teeth and head gear worn by Hollywood actor and gorilla impersonator Ray “Crash” Corrigan in the movie White Pongo (PRC Pictures, 1945) represents an early, groundbreaking milestone in special effects and animatronics. Measuring roughly 9 by 14 inches, this internal rig allowed Corrigan to breathe dynamic, terrifying facial expressions into his custom-built rubber gorilla suits.

Instead of a static mask, the device used a highly detailed system of levers and armatures to mimic real muscle movements. The rig consisted of a metal headband and sidebars attached directly to a moving jawpiece. The jawpiece was outfitted with highly realistic, menacing resin teeth and gums. Thin mechanical wires and levers were fastened around the performer’s face beneath the heavy rubber mask. When Corrigan moved his own jaw and cheeks, the mechanical linkages would sync with his movements. This made the outer gorilla suit's mouth open, lips snarl, and nostrils snort on command.

While the bare metal armature looks incredibly eerie and skeletal on its own, this 1945 invention laid the baseline logic for modern creature suits. Mid-century monster icons like Ray “Crash” Corrigan built their own suits to maximize realism, pioneering techniques that legendary effects studios, like the Stan Winston School, later perfected for blockbusters like Congo and Jurassic Park.

John Wojtowicz Posing in Front of the Chase Manhattan Bank in Brooklyn He Tried to Rob, 1978

John Wojtowicz (also known as “Littlejohn” or “The Dog”) standing outside the Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Gravesend, Brooklyn (at 450 Avenue P), that he tried to rob on August 22, 1972. He is wearing a black T-shirt reading “I ROBBED THIS BANK.” The photo was taken after his release from federal prison in April 1978; he returned to the site to pose for pictures and sign autographs, capitalizing on his notoriety.

Wojtowicz (then 27), a Vietnam veteran, former Chase Manhattan teller, and married father of two who was also involved in New York’s gay scene, planned the heist primarily to fund gender-reassignment surgery for his lover, Ernest Aron (later Elizabeth Debbie Eden / Liz Eden). Aron had attempted suicide, and Wojtowicz believed the surgery would help. He recruited two accomplices, Salvatore (“Sal”) Naturile and Robert (“Bobby”) Westenberg. After some failed scouting attempts at other banks (and after watching The Godfather that day for inspiration), they targeted this branch near closing time.

Westenberg lost his nerve and fled. Wojtowicz and Naturile entered, presented a note inspired by The Godfather (“This is an offer you can’t refuse”), and took employees hostage. What was meant to be a quick job turned into a chaotic 14-hour standoff. Police and FBI surrounded the bank; a large crowd of onlookers and media gathered. Wojtowicz negotiated, played to the crowd (throwing money, demanding food and pizza, etc.), and demanded to see Aron (who was brought from a hospital). The vault had limited cash; they seized roughly $38,000 in cash plus traveler’s checks.

The situation ended when the hostages and robbers were taken to Kennedy Airport under the pretense of providing a plane. FBI agents shot and killed Naturile; Wojtowicz surrendered. He was sentenced to 20 years but served about five (released in 1978).

The story became a media sensation and inspired the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon (directed by Sidney Lumet, with Al Pacino as a character based on Wojtowicz and John Cazale as the Naturile figure). Wojtowicz sold the rights and used some of the money to help fund Eden’s surgery; she had the operation in 1973. Their relationship later ended; Eden died of AIDS-related illness in 1987.

After release, Wojtowicz struggled to find steady work, he even applied unsuccessfully for a security job at the same bank. He leaned into his fame: standing outside the bank signing autographs and posing in the “I Robbed This Bank” shirt, as seen in the 1978 photo. He lived much of the rest of his life in Brooklyn (often with his mother), had further legal troubles, and died in 2006. A 2013 documentary, The Dog, covers his life in more detail.

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Actor Anita Page Showcasing Her Award-Winning “Most Beautiful Forehead in Hollywood” in 1932

On November 30, 1932, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) starlet Anita Page won the Californian contest for the “Most Beautiful Forehead in Hollywood” (alternatively translated from historic press wires as the “Most Beautiful Front”).

This was one of the quirky publicity-oriented beauty contests common in Hollywood during the early 1930s. Page was already famous as a popular MGM actress of the late silent era and early talkies (notably Our Dancing Daughters opposite Joan Crawford and the Best Picture winner The Broadway Melody, 1929). She was widely promoted as the “Girl with the Most Beautiful Face in Hollywood” and received up to 20,000 fan letters a month, reportedly second only to Greta Garbo at her peak, along with colorful admirers that included Benito Mussolini.

By late 1932 her MGM contract was winding down (it was not renewed), and she continued briefly in other studios before largely retiring from the screen in the mid-1930s. The forehead contest fits the era’s light, image-focused publicity around stars’ physical features.

In 1982, Knickerbocker Released the E.T. Finger Light Toy Which Was Quickly Removed From Stores

The 1982 E.T. Finger Light by Knickerbocker Toy Co. is one of the most infamous movie tie-in merchandise failures in toy history. Released to capitalize on the massive success of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the toy was pulled from store shelves just months after its launch due to intense controversy over its design.

It was designed to let children ages 4 and up mimic E.T.’s famous glowing, healing fingertip. Carried under model number 4111, it consisted of a flesh-colored, textured rubber extension that fit over a child’s finger. When pressed down against a surface, an internal, non-replaceable battery would trigger a light bulb at the tip, causing it to glow. The packaging proudly advertised: “Finger Glows When Pressed!”

While intended as an innocent piece of movie magic, the toy’s shape, rubberized texture, and phallic appearance immediately raised eyebrows among parents. Adults heavily criticized the toy for unintentionally resembling an adult novelty product rather than a children’s plaything. Due to the immediate wave of complaints, awkward parental backlash, and public mockery, retailers quickly removed the product from shelves and discontinued it after only a few months in production. Coincidentally, the manufacturing company, Knickerbocker Toy Co., went out of business that very same year, in 1982.