9 posts tagged “tattooed ladies”
Amelia Klem Osterud & James A. Levine
Wednesday, October 7 | 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Venue: Wisconsin Studio/Overture
Presenter(s): Amelia Klem Osterud, James A. Levine
An event featuring two wildly diverse books: James A. Levine’s novel The Blue Notebook, a story about a fifteen-year-old girl sold into sexual slavery in Mumbai, and The Tattooed Lady: A History
by Amelia Klem Osterud, on women who made sideshow livings by
displaying their bodies onstage in an era when even a bit of ankle was
considered scandalous. This promises to spark a provocative
conversation about women who, by choice or not, do work that puts them
on the fringe of society -- and about the economic forces that foster
such "work."
Bookseller: University Book Store
Category(s):
Fiction, International, Society & Politics, Work
I was invited to talk on a panel with Anna Friedman Herlihy (exhibit curator) Glen Davies (banner muralist) at Intuit (Outsider art museum in Chicago) for their upcoming exhibit: Freaks & Flash on Tattoo Flash and Circus Banners on Saturday, Sept. 26th @ 3pm.
Free and open to the public
Intuit will host a panel discussion with experts on tattoo history and circus banners and performers. The panelists are Freaks & Flash co-curator, Anna Friedman Herlihy; Amelia Klem Osterud, author of the forthcoming book The Tattooed Lady: A History (Nov. 2009, Speck Press); and former circus traveler turned artist, Glen Davies.
The exhibit itself runs:
September 11, 2009 - January 9, 2010 Opening Reception: Friday, September 11, 5-8pm Intuit is pleased to present Freaks & Flash, featuring artwork from the heyday of tattooing as a Western folk art. Tattoo flash (the design drawings for tattoos) will be combined with sideshow banners depicting tattooed performers and acetate stencils used for transferring tattoo designs on to the skin. From the early days of tattoo shops at the turn of the twentieth century until the beginnings of the tattoo "Renaissance" in the late 1960s and early 1970s, tattooing reflected a wide range of styles and motifs from the mundane to the extraordinary. From the work of "scratchers" to those who bridged the boundary between folk and fine art, the exhibit will offer a glimpse into the multi-faceted history of inscriptions on human skin through the artifacts left behind. |
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Intuit is located @ 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60642
phone: 312.243.9088 | fax: 312.243.9089
information: intuit@art.org
Last week I had the honor of participating in photographer Lynn Allen's Milwaukee tattooed ladies project- Women in Ink. Allen was interviewed by OnMilwaukee.com about her project. Her website is http://necropolisphotography.com and she's a very talented lady.
But- she also made me look lovely! There's two more on her site.
It's official- I have a book contract!
Seriously.
Speck Press- check them out!
Now comes months of hard work.
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.
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!
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)
