Description
Family Portrait of Chang and Eng Bunker and Sons, circa 1850. Carte-de-visite portrait of Chang and Eng Bunker with two of their sons, albumen print, by an unknown photographer, good condition, with a slight developer’s stain in the upper right-hand corner, 10 cm x 6.2 cm. The conjoined Thai-American Bunker brothers (1811 – 1874) put the term ‘Siamese Twins’ into common usage as a medical term to describe the phenomenon of anatomically conjoined twins. Of Chinese extraction, the brothers were joined at the sternum, and apart from their livers being fused together, they were anatomically complete. When the Bunker twins emigrated to the United States, they became naturalized citizens and settled in North Carolina, where they bought a small plantation and slaves to help them run it in 1839. They both married and had families. On January 17, 1874 Chang died of a severe case of bronchitis. Eng died a few hours later. Their fused livers are on display in the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia.
Photograph of Siamese Twins Millie-Christine McKoy Two-Headed Nightingale
Libby Prison Carte de Visite Photograph circa 1863
