Joice Heth

[2][3] Posters advertising her shows in 1835 included the lines, "Joice Heth is unquestionably the most astonishing and interesting curiosity in the World!

[4] She was, toward the end of her life, blind and almost completely paralyzed (she could talk, and had some ability to move her right arm)[5] when Barnum started to exhibit her on August 10, 1835, at Niblo's Garden in New York City.

Harriet Washington writes that, at the time of her display, Heth had a very small frame, deep wrinkles, was toothless, and had fingernails that resembled talons.

Washington claims that Heth's toothless mouth was the result of Barnum forcefully extracting her teeth so that she would look older.

[8] Eric Lott claimed Heth earned the impresario $1,500 a week, a princely sum in that era (equivalent to $44,000 in 2023).

[2] When Rogers declared the age claim a fraud, Barnum insisted that the autopsy victim was another person, and that Heth was alive, on a tour to Europe.