A young woman with pale, smooth skin and dark, frizzy hair encircling her head is seated formally in exotic dress near what seems to be Middle Eastern furniture and sculpture.
Meserve-Kunhardt Collection

Zalumma Agra, "Star of the East," was (at least according to Barnum) rescued from the slave markets of Constantinople. She was said to be the daughter of a prince from the mountainous region of the Black Sea--the purported birthplace of the Caucasian race. As the "purest" type of white person, Circassian women were said to be the most beautiful on earth, prized by Turkish sultans for their harems. Surprisingly proficient in English, and mysteriously deficient in her knowledge of "Circassia," Zalumma Agra was nonetheless a highly popular attraction at the American Museum. "Circassian Beauties" became a mainstay of dime museums and side shows until the end of the nineteenth century, attracting white audiences fascinated by the "exotic East" and preoccupied by issues of race.

 

Cartoons and illustrations from contemporary newspapers, magazines, and observers.

Detail, Winslow Homer, Circassian Girl and Prize Old Man, drawing (c. 1897).
Photograph of Circassian Woman, (c. 1870), No. 1 (Texas Photo Center Website)
Photograph of Circassian Woman, (c. 1870), No. 2 (Texas Photo Center Website)

Press coverage and other contemporary observations about the Barnum attraction.

Scholarly views about the significance of "The Star of the East" and other "Circassian Beauties."

Linda Frost, "The Circassian Beauty and the Circassian Slave: Gender, Imperialism, and American Popular Entertainment," in Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body, Rosemarie Garland Thomson, ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1996).

Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).