The Wonderful Lucasie Albino Family, 1857
Currier & Ives lithograph of Rudolph Lucasie, his wife and children, between 1857 & 1872. The Albino Lucasie family were European, but Barnum, who discovered them at the 1857 Amsterdam fair, gave out that they were Negroes from Madagascar and claimed that their pink eyes remained staring even as they slept. He brought them to New York to work at his American Museum. The Lucasies performed together for 40 years. When Antoinette died, Rudolph continued performing in vaudeville as an albino violinist. He died in Kansas City in 1909. Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of tyrosinase, a copper-containing enzyme involved in the production of melanin. Albinism results from inheritance of recessive gene alleles and is known to affect all vertebrates, including humans. Albinism is associated with a number of vision defects, such as photophobia, nystagmus and astigmatism. Lack of skin pigmentation makes for more susceptibility to sunburn and skin cancers.
Size: 2700px × 4192px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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