Things have gotten busy for me, so I've been negligent on my blog... but I just wanted to thank everyone who came to hear my talk in Sheboygan in Sept.! It was great fun for me, and nice to see that people are interested.
I'm still waiting to hear from Speck Press, where I submitted my chapters and book proposal. They say their review process takes a few months, so I'll try and be patient. In the mean time, I really need to find a few more publishers to try.
I was watching an auction for an Irene Woodward pamphlet on ebay recently (you may have to be logged in to ebay for the link to work, since it's a completed auction)... it's the same pamphlet that Syracuse Special Collections has a copy of, so it is available to researchers.
I figured it would be pricey, but the ending price was $710.00. Wow. Just Wow.
I'll be giving a talk about tattooed ladies (of course!) at the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, Wis., on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007 at 10am.
here's the info from their website (http://www.sheboygan.lib.wi.us/#):
Saturday, Sept. 22: Mead Public Library will present a free program, "American Tattooed Ladies, 1882-1995" at 10 a.m. Historian and librarian Amelia Osterud will discuss her research on the history of tattooed ladies of the circus, sideshow, dime museum and carnival. Call 459-3400, ext. 3437, for more information.
And, a nice piece in the Sheboygan Press!
Later that year, her husband divorced her.
There were two well-known tattooed ladies in 1882. Nora Hildebrandt and Irene Woodward. Irene debuted in March of 1882, and Nora shortly before or after.
Annie Howard showed up as a tattooed lady in 1885, seemingly out of nowhere. Did Annie Boyle hook up with Frank Howard sometime between (or before!) the divorce from Mr. Boyle in Nov. 1882? Did Annie Boyle become Annie Howard?
Guess I'll be at the public library this weekend digging through Ancestry.com.
Annie Boyle sounds like she might have been fun to hang out with.
so- my theories are:
1. Martin was Nora's dad, which is how she got into the tattooed lady business
2. She married a guy named Jacob, who took her last name for performance purposes, since it was better known.
2. Nora died in 1892 or 1893, and this NY Times listing of "Brooklyn Calendars- This Day, Surrogates Court" from April 1893 lists the "Administration estate of... Nora Hildebrandt." Additionally, I can't find any records of her working after 1891 when she and Jacob "Hildebrandt" worked with the Barnum and Bailey Sideshow.
Unfortunately, the Surrogate's Court in Brooklyn has no records from the settlement of this estate. I have a few more things to try, suggested by the nice folks at the Brooklyn historical society. I'll keep you posted...
I moved my site content over from my old website (http://homepage.mac.com/tattooedladyhistory), which is why there are posts previous to this welcome post, and they might look familiar.
I'm trying this method out to make updating easier, and to make posting photos easier, so enjoy!
- I was interviewed by Mary Louise Schumacher from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for an article about da Vinci's Last Supper in art: Eternal Image, Perpetual Change (March 30, 2007) which is available via JSOnline. There's also a fascinating multimedia presentation online as well.
- Interested in tattoos? You can learn a lot from Amelia, March 6, 2007, by Laurel Walker for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, available on JSOnline
- Amelia Klem: Studying women who bared their ink to make a living by Tim Cigelske for MKE, photos by Christine Taylor.
- Tattooed Ladies Defined Outer Boundaries of Changing Society, interview in UWM's Research Profile Magazine, written by Jessica McBride, Spring 2005
- I will be presenting my research at the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, Wis. on September 22, 2007 at 10am.
- I presented a paper at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association 2007 National Conference in Boston on April 5th, 2007. The title of my paper was Rape, Shame, and Triumph: The Tattooed Lady and the Captivity Narrative and it's about about late 19th century tattooed ladies and the captivity narratives they used to tell their stories in the sideshow. Copies are available from me for $5. Please email me if you are interested.
Carroll College Library Lecture Series
Tues. March 6th, 7-8:30pm
“Say, Have You Met Lydia? American Tattooed Ladies, 1882-1995”Amelia Klem Osterud will discuss her research on tattooed ladies and explore their impact on American culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ms. Osterud is currently the Access Services Librarian at Carroll College. Her article, “A Life of Her Own Choosing: Anna Gibbons’ Fifty Years as a Tattooed Lady” appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History and won the Wisconsin Historical Society’s William B. Hesseltine Award for the best original article of the year. Please join us in learning about this remarkable group of women in celebration of Women’s History Month.
All presentations will take place in the Learning Commons housed in the lower level of the library. Refreshments will be served and each lecture will include a question and answer period. We welcome your attendance!
- The Scholar and the Library Speaker Series, UW-Milwaukee Special Collections
Friday, December 8th, 2006, 2-3pm
Room 281, Golda Meir Library, Second Floor, East Wing
"Say, Have You Met Lydia?" American Tattooed Ladies, 1882-1995
What started all this tattoo craziness??
I wrote my masters in history in 2004 on the history of tattooed ladies of the circus. Want to read it?? You can get it via ILL from UW-Milwaukee.
"Say Have You Met Lydia? A History of American Tattooed Ladies of the Circus, Sideshow and Dime Museum, 1882-1995
Masters Thesis in History (M.A)
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2004
E1000 .K644 2004 (Golda Meir Library)
A Life of Her Own Choosing: Anna Gibbons' Fifty Years as a Tattooed Lady (a link to a feature about my article and a .pdf file of the article.)
Article
about Artoria Gibbons, Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring 2006. The
Magazine also highlighted Artoria in March on their website (now archived).
My article also won the Historical Society’s William B. Hesseltine
Award for the best original article of the year for 2006.
