William Hart (active 1860s)

THE CAROLINA TWINS, c.1858, Millie & Christine McKoy (1851-1912), conjoined twins. Sixth plate Ambrotype full length portrait, in a Pinchbeck frame with ornately decorated, rectangularly arched matt, housed in wooden half case with maroon leather covering, original hanging hook, and photographer's label intact verso.

This extraordinary ambrotype portrait appears to be one of the earliest surviving images of the twins, which was taken, either as a copy of a daguerreotype or from life, in England.

In 1851, just 10 months after the pair were born, they were sold to a man named Joseph Pearson Smith for $1000. The twins were then exhibited in P.T Barnum's famed American Museum in New York, and they were abducted and taken to England by one of the showmen in charge of exhibiting them at this time. Smith, along with the twin's Mother Monemia, then travelled to England, found them, sued their captor, and regained custody of the twins and repatriated them in the U.S. On January 1st 1863 they were freed under the Emancipation Proclamaition.