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Josephine Clofullia

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Josephine Clofullia
Portrait of Josephine Clofullia. She sits on a wooden chair and leans against a cloth-covered table. Around her neck is a long chain that is connected to a pocket watch that sits in her lap. She wears bracelets, many rings, and a brooch that holds a daguerreotype of her husband, Fortune Clofullia, a landscape painter.
Portrait of Josephine Clofullia
Born(1829-03-25)March 25, 1829
Versoix, Switzerland
Died1870 (aged 40–41)
Bridgwater, United Kingdom
NationalitySwiss
OccupationBearded lady
Known forToured with P. T. Barnum's "American Museum"
RelativesOne brother, three sisters

Josephine Clofullia (1829–1870) was a famous Swiss-born bearded lady who is most famous for being part of P. T. Barnum's "American Museum."

Early life

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Madame Clofullia, as she was often billed, was born Josephine Boisdechêne[1] in Versoix, Switzerland to Brigadier Joseph Boisdechêne and Françoise Masset. She was born hairy and reputedly had a two-inch beard at the age of eight.[2]

At eight, she was sent to boarding school in Geneva to be educated by the same institution as her mother. When she was fourteen, her mother died shortly after the death of her fifth child, and her father removed her from the school.

Personal life

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Josephine gave birth to two children; the first, a girl named Zelea, born in December 1851, died eleven months later.[3] Her son Albert, who was born in December 1852, was also born with a layer of hair.

While comfortable in her home village, in many places when going out in public she would wear a handkerchief over the lower half of her face to not provoke attention or be accused of being a man in women's clothing.[4]

Touring career

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Depiction of Josephine with two young children, as published in a contemporary biography[5]

In 1849, at the age of twenty, she began to tour Europe, first accompanied by her father and an agent and then with her father alone. In Paris she met painter Fortune Clofullia and eventually married him. She is notorious for fashioning her beard to imitate that of Napoleon III. In return, the ruler gave her a large diamond.[6]

By early 1851 she had taken up residence in London, to take part in the Great Universal Exposition. where she visited Charing Cross Hospital to discuss her unusual medical condition, and was the following year the subject of an article for The Lancet.[4]

In 1853, Clofullia, her husband, her son, and her father moved to the United States where they were introduced to P. T. Barnum. Barnum offered her a position at his American Museum, and she debuted there in March, 1853 as "The Bearded Lady of Geneva."[7] For a period during her nine-month tenure her son was also featured as an attraction, where he was dubbed "Infant Esau", after the biblical character. Variations on this title would also later be used for other performers under Barnum, such as Annie Jones and Grace Gilbert.[3]

Clofullia then entered into a new contract with Colonel J. H. Wood, the owner of Col. Wood's Museum, and toured through several U.S. States. By 1854, she was working in Havana, Cuba.[2]

Law suit

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In July 1853 William Charr took Clofullia to court, claiming that she was actually a man and an impostor.[3] During the case doctors examined her and verified that she was a female and the case was eventually dismissed.[8] By hearsay it has been suspected that Barnum arranged the whole matter himself as a publicity stunt.[9][3]

Later life and death

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In 1870 she was being exhibited at St. Matthews Fair in the town of Bridgwater, England. In late September, Josephine became ill and whilst recovering in the Bridgwater Workhouse Hospital, she died. Her cause of death was listed on her death certificate as a "low fever." She is buried in the paupers section of Wembdon Road Cemetery, Bridgwater.[10]

References

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  1. ^ Trainor, Sean (2015-12-05). "Lessons of the Bearded Lady". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  2. ^ a b Life of the celebrated bearded lady. Duke University Libraries. New York, Courrier de États-Unis, power presses. 1855.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ^ a b c d Nickell, Joe (2005-09-09). Secrets of the Sideshows. University Press of Kentucky. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-8131-2358-5.
  4. ^ a b Chowne, W.D. (1852). "Remarkable Case of Hirsute Growth in a Female; with Observations on Certain Organic Structures and Their Physiological Influences". The Lancet. 59 (1496): 421–422. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(02)41036-7. ISSN 0140-6736.
  5. ^ Life of the celebrated bearded lady. Duke University Libraries. New York, Courrier de États-Unis, power presses. 1855.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ^ Hartzman, Marc (September 21, 2006). American Sideshow. Penguin. ISBN 9781440649912.
  7. ^ Slout, William Lawrence (1998-01-01). Olympians of the Sawdust Circle: A Biographical Dictionary of the Nineteenth Century American Circus. Wildside Press LLC. ISBN 978-0-8095-0310-0.
  8. ^ "New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, July 02, 1853, Image 7". 1853-07-02. p. 7. ISSN 2158-2661. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  9. ^ Alston, Isabella (2014-08-01). Anatomical Anomalies. TAJ Books International. ISBN 978-1-84406-378-9.
  10. ^ 2.2 The Paupers' Burial Ground (& Josephine Clofullia). YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-08.
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