In May 1887, two tattooed freaks began their European journey. Married couple Emma and Frank de Burgh were to begin their representations at London’s Albert Palace on the 23rd. Their career was then still quite new: it had been inaugurated with their remarked 1885 wedding in Burlington, Iowa, back when they were travelling with the Sells Brothers Circus. Frank was said to have been tattooed in Burma and in the United States: British newspaper The Era highlighted a spectacular crucifixion in his back. Emma was not yet named in the press, but the newspaper remarked upon the Last Supper between her shoulders. They were to prove themselves masters at managing their careers…
1887 was the year of Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee. It may seem completely unrelated to their arrival. However, Emma and Frank de Burgh used those circumstances to their advantage. The Era specified that Frank was originally from Bristol and that he owed his trip to Burma to his service in the British army. Emma was purely American, but she pretended to have been tattooed in celebration of the jubilee – it was, of course, completely false, but quite efficient in appealing to the British crowd. In their shows, the origin of their tattoos was narrated by a former member of the 11th Hussards, a survivor from the battle of Balaclava. Their show was met with immediate success. After the Albert Palace, Emma de Burgh appeared alone at the Royal Aquarium in Westminster, though she was possibly introduced and accompanied by her husband. In early 1888, they were both in Birmingham. In March, they crossed the Pond to appear at the Alcazar d’Eté in Paris. And then Norwich in 1890, Berlin in 1891, Glasgow and Liverpool in 1892, Dublin, Cologne, Brussels, and Cardiff in 1893… As well as probably some other cities I have not yet managed to locate archives on.
As a matter of fact, Emma and Frank de Burgh knew how to promote themselves. Though The Era was originally a fairly general newspaper, by the end of the century it had become an important theatrical publication. The de Burghs used its columns to announce that they were looking for new stages to grace. On the 11th or June 1887, they anticipated their departure from the Albert Palace by signalling in a short notice that any interested venue could contact their agents R. Warner and Co. The couple’s tattoos were also renowned for their beauty and often mentioned or illustrated in the European press. Understandable, since they were done by the renowned American tattooist Samuel O’Reilly. Their arrival in Europe also meant that they could find their place in a relatively new scene, where their patriotic and religious tattoos were enough to spark excitement. They may also be two of the few tattooed freaks who didn’t rely on a made-up story of captivity and forced tattooing to please their public.
Despite all these efforts, the tables started to turn on tattooed people after 1893. When the de Burghs reached Cardiff, their tattoos were not described as admirable or patriotic. A newspaper article called them two members of an odd, tattooed specie, whose appearance was enough to deter anyone ‘interested in tattooing’. By the end of the year, the couple appeared in Dublin and then ceased all shows for a few months. Perhaps it was a bad season for showbusiness, perhaps people were losing interest. However, the de Burghs found a clever solution to secure income. A few advertisements published in The Era between January and April 1894 tell us that Emma opened ‘comfortable Apartments for Professionals visiting the Town’. In May, they went back to the Royal Aquarium in Westminster.
Still, the de Burgh’s career was soon to come to an end. In March 1895, Emma de Burgh had to cease all shows because of a pulmonary congestion. Even though the couple announced that they were to appear in Paris’s Jardin des Plantes from the 2nd of June, I could not find any trace of those shows in the French press. From 1897 on, her husband only travelled alone. He published a sad notice in The Era, specifying that he would accept ‘any Engagement as Doorman to a Permanent Museum of Waxwork or to Travel with Respectable Showman’. He went alone from country to country until 1900. On the 20th of May 1898, Emma was apparently in Leipzig when she filled an application for an American passport. She was perhaps longing for her native land. She wrote that she was born on the 14th of November 1860 in Oswego, New York, and that her main place of residence was Chicago, where she was a professional ‘Tattooed Lady’. According to historian Amelia K. Osterund, the de Burghs separated as a couple in 1898… When she asked for her passport, Emma specified that she left the United States in May 1887. Eleven years of European tour made her a tattoo legend. We know Emma de Burgh through multiple images of her tattooed body: photographs, sketches by Pre-Raphaelite painter Walter Burnes-Jones, posters… As well as a few lines in newspapers, through which we can retrace her peregrinations and imagine what her life was like as a tattooed freak.
Sources des illustrations
Imprimerie Charles Lévy, « Alcazar d’été. L’homme et la femme tattooed », Paris, Musée Carnavalet, 1888. Gambier Bolton, « Pictures on the Human Skin », Strand Magazine, vol. 13, 1897, p. 432, via Internet Archive. Hughes Le Roux et Jules Garnier (illustrateur), Les Jeux du cirque et la vie foraine, Paris, Librairie Plon, 1889, via Internet Archive. Sources et articles contemporains « The Risks of Entertainers », The Era, 23 avril 1887. « Tattooing Extraordinary », Birmingham Daily Post, 28 mai 1887. « Advertisements and Notice », The Era, 11 juin 1887. « Albert Palace », The Morning Post, 31 mai 1887. « Public Amusement », Western Mail, 10 octobre 1893. « Music Hall Gossip », The Era, 16 mars 1895. « Advertisement and Notices », The Era, 1er juillet 1895. “Advertisement and Notices”, The Era, 10 juillet 1897. United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925, Washington, National Archives and Records Administration, USM1834 37-0985. Pour aller plus loin Sunny Buick, “Emma de Burgh”, Sunny Buik, 2 juin 2020. Jane Caplan (dir.), Written on the Body. The Tattoo in European and American History, Londres, Reaktion Books, 2000. Amelia K. Osterud, The Tattooed Lady. A History, Lanham, Boulder, New York et Londres, Taylor Trade Publishing, 2014.
