1869 – A carte-de-visite (cdv) photograph of Chang and Eng Bunker, the famous cojoined “Siamese Twins” and two of their sons

Item Details

Circa 1869, Carte-de-Visite

Very Good

This albumin photograph is mounted on cdv cardstock and measures approximately 2.5” x 4”. It shows Chang and Eng and two of their sons

At the time the photograph was taken, Chang and Eng were around 59 years old. James, Eng’s son, was about 21, and Albert, Chang’s son was about 12. Together Chang and Eng had 21 children.

The twins were born in Siam, today Thailand, in 1811. The boys grew up without any particular stigma and participated in all the regular childhood activities along with their neighborhood friends. They were ‘discovered’ by a Scottish merchant, Robert Hunter, who arranged for their travel, along with a Siamese translator, to Britain via the United States with an American sea captain, Abel Coffin. The twins signed a five-year touring contract with the men. After a very successful British tour, the twins returned to New York and began touring under the management of James W. Hales. Originally, they exhibited themselves as the “Siamese Youths” (and later, the “Siamese Twins)”, wearing pigtails and dressed in “oriental’ clothing. Following a dispute with Coffin, who had become something of a surrogate father, and a belief that Hales was cheating them, Chang and Eng began to manage their own very profitable tours.  At one point, they briefly worked for P. T. Barnum but found the relationship disagreeable and went back to managing themselves.

The brothers amassed a small fortune, retired from touring, and became slave-owning planters near Mount Airy, North Carolina. Accepted by the local elites, they took the surname Bunker in honor of a women they had met and admired. They also married sisters and became naturalized citizens. They lost much of their fortune during the Civil War and resumed touring, usually with some of their children. Only partially successful in the North, due to their recent, slave-owning, Confederate past, the twins left to begin a much more profitable tour of Europe. On the return voyage home, in 1870, Chang suffered a paralyzing stroke. The brothers retire for good, and Eng spent the rest of his life caring for his brother until they died in 1874.

A very nice example of a cdv of the twins that was, no doubt, sold at one of their lectures following the Civil War. Chang and Eng cdvs, usually picturing only themselves, occasionally appear at auction and on eBay. This example with two of their sons and a revenue stamp is in better condition than most.

#10509