Weird History

Ella Harper: The "Camel Girl" Who Became The Biggest Circus Act of the 19th Century (2017x10)

: 29, 2017

Ella Harper was a circus performer who was born with a rare condition called congenital genu recurvatum … which caused her knees to bend backwards … like a camel. Her preference to walk on all fours, opposed to hanging in there and standing up like a champion, which earned her the nickname “The Camel Girl”… and her own circus act. Harper was the main act in W. H. Harris’s Nickel Plate Circus, earning 200 dollars a week in 1886, roughly 5 grand in today’s dollars. Her act became one of the most popular circus acts in its day, especially as she was just a teenager at the time. Harper hung up her cleats and retired some years later, reportedly moving to Tennessee where she married a man … and was never heard from again. She then died in 1921. One of the most memorable circus artists of the 19th century.