The True
History of “The
Elephant Man”
Joseph Carey Merrick
Birth and early years
• Born Aug. 5, 1862 in Leicester, England to a
working-class family and a crippled mother
• According to local Leicester legend, Merrick’s
mother Mary was nearly trampled by an
elephant from a fair’s wild-beast show,
suggesting Merrick’s appearance was some
kind of a supernatural curse. Though the
incident may have happened, it would have
had nothing to do with John’s condition.
• Joseph was born with no sign of
abnormality—his condition manifested itself
at 21 months.
Early years
• At age 3 ½, Merrick took a fall, injured his
hip, and acquired a chronic limp
• Joseph had a younger brother (who died
of scarlet fever at age five) and sister
• Merrick’s mother died of pneumonia when
he was age 10
• Merrick’s father Joseph remarried in 1874,
to a woman who reviled Joseph
Young “adulthood”
• At age 12, Merrick’s public schooling came
to an end, and he was expected to work to
support the family.
• He rolled cigars in a factory until age 15,
when his overgrown right arm made the
delicate work impossible
• Joseph’s stepmother tore into him
regularly, calling him a bum due to his
failure to bring in money
Young adulthood
• Joseph’s father obtained a hawker’s license
(license to sell items on the street) for Joseph,
who attempted to sell stockings and gloves from
his father’s haberdashery shop
• Joseph’s declining physical condition made
sales nearly impossible
• One day in 1877, failing to meet his father’s
demands, Merrick was thrashed severely and
decided to leave home for good.
Young adulthood
• Joseph’s Uncle Charles sought and found
Joseph and rescued him from
homelessness by taking him in with his
aunt and cousins
• Recognizing he was a burden, Merrick
resolved to register with the Poor Law
(welfare) authority and enter the
workhouse (he did this the first Monday
after Christmas 1879).
Workhouses
• Workhouses consisted of
workrooms, labor yards,
dormitories, and dining
halls. Uniforms were
issued—conditions were
squalid and spare, not
unlike a prison.
• The work consisted of
oakum-picking (beating and
unraveling of old rope to
reuse the hemp), woodchopping, corn-grinding,
granite-busting (for road
materials), washing of
clothes and dishes, etc.
Moving on
• Around 1882, Merrick was
referred to the local hospital,
the Leicester Infirmary, for an
operation that removed
approximately eight inches of
flesh from his upper jaw.
• In 1884, after nearly four
years spent in the workhouse,
Joseph took action. Having
heard that local hotel/musichall proprietor Sam Torr was
looking for novelty acts,
Joseph proposed exhibiting
himself.
Freak shows
• Torr gathered a group of investors—
including freak-show promoter Tom
Norman—to organize tours for Joseph.
Joseph’s new advisors suggested he
perform under the name “The Elephant
Man, Half-a-Man and Half-an-Elephant.”
Freak shows and Frederick
• In November 1884, Norman set
Merrick up in empty storefront 123
Whitechapel Road, directly across
from the London Hospital.
• Here, Dr. Frederick Treves saw
Merrick and returned to learn
more—a boy directed Treves to
Norman, who was at a nearby pub.
A private showing was arranged, at
a fee.
• After this private showing (much as
it is dramatized in the film), Treves
struck another deal with Norman to
have Merrick come to the hospital
for further study. With his walking
stick, hat/mask, cloak, and slippers
(and the aid of a hansom cab), the
22-year-old Merrick soon obliged.
Treves’ study
• As depicted, Treves
conducted a clinical
interview, arranged for
photographs to be
taken, and persuaded
Norman to allow
Joseph to be
presented before the
Pathological Society
• Thereafter, Treves
and Merrick parted
ways, Merrick with
Treves’ “visiting card”
in pocket
Trouble
• A two-page pamphlet was prepared for sale
at Merrick’s exhibitions: The Autobiography
of Joseph Carey Merrick.
• Unfortunately for Joseph, police regularly
shut down his exhibitions in the interest of
public decency.
• To avoid the institutional harrassment,
Joseph and his handlers agreed to relocate
Joseph for a European tour, under the
management of an Austrian “gentleman.”
Trouble
• Performances were shut down with
equal frequency in Europe, leading
the frustrated manager to dump
Joseph in Brussels, Belgium
• Alone, Joseph was swiftly robbed.
Penniless, unable to speak the
language, and borderline incoherent
in English anyway, Joseph somehow
managed to make his way back to
London.
• Arriving in the Liverpool Street Station,
the exhausted and frightened Merrick
was swarmed by a gaping crowd and
rescued by police, to whom Merrick
presented Treves’ card.
Reunion
• Treves responded to a police request and met
Merrick at the station, escorting the spent man
back to the hospital, where he was temporarily
installed in the isolation ward.
• After five months, the issue had to be
resolved: what to do with this incurable
patient? Hospital Chairman Francis CarrGomm led the public-relations campaign,
beginning with a plea published in The Times.
Life at the London
• Treves was a daily visitor. Merrick was
known to read The Bible, many
periodicals, and Jane Austen, among
others
• Concerned about Merrick’s isolation,
Treves arranged a visit with “a young and
pretty widow.”
Life at the London
• Soon thereafter, charity-minded
actress Madge Kendal

took an interest and began a
correspondence with Joseph
(including gifts: a gramophone
for him; the famous cathedral
model for her). She also made
possible Joseph’s desire to
learn basket work. Though the
two never met, Kendal
arranged a private box for
Merrick to see his first
theatrical performance, almost
certainly the pantomime Puss
in Boots.
Life at the London
• The Prince and Princess of
Wales, on a hospital tour, also
stopped in to visit with Joseph
• Joseph did put a gentleman’s
dressing bag on his Christmas
wish list, and Treves did
purchase it for Joseph.
• Chronic bronchitis and the
invasive disorder weakened
John’s heart and left him prone to
infection. Treves knew Merrick
could go suddenly.
• Since Merrick had expressed a
desire to visit the countryside,
Treves arranged a six-week stay
at the country estate of a
prominent lady.
Merrick and cathedrals
• Though Merrick never made a cathedral model from scratch, he
assembled many from complex cardboard model kits (still an
impressive feat for a man with a deformed right arm).
•
He gave these
as gifts, including
the one at right,
which he gave to
Madge Kendal and
now remains on
museum display.
Death at the London
• In April of 1890, Joseph was found
dead, with no sign of struggle. The
cause of death was determined to
be asphyxiation due to “the weight
of the head pressing against the
windpipe.” Treves surmised that
John had at last attempted to lie
normally “like other people,” as he
had often wished aloud.
• Life casts were taken of Merrick’s
head and limbs, and Merrick’s
skeleton was preserved. These and
various artifacts remain on display
in the London Hospital Medical
College Museum.
What caused Merrick’s condition?
• NOT elephantiasis (a disease
causing thickening of the skin, esp.
the legs)
• 1970s: experts theorized Merrick has
genetic disorder neurofibromatosis
type I
• 1986: a new theory emerges that
Merrick had congenital disorder
Proteus syndrome
• 2003: DNA testing on hair and bone
samples proves inconclusive
• Today: conventional wisdom is that
he surely had Proteus syndrome,
though he may have had
neurofibromatosis at the same time.
Others say the problem of diagnosis
suggests he had a unique condition:
“Merrick’s disease”
Who is “Tree Man”?
•
•
•
•
Dede Kosawa in Indonesia, 21st Century
Human papillomavirus (HPV-2), which
causes warts, developed out of control due
to a genetically inherited immune defect
Like Merrick, lost job, turned to begging
and then agreed to be exhibited as a freak
(under the name “Tree Man”)
Thanks to an American dermatologist and
nine surgeries, his condition is much
improved