Raynor HCA 2014-01
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/30/2014
Cabinet card Photograph, 4-3/8” x 6-5/8,” of Millie and Christine McCoy with photographers identification on the front mount, Wendt, Boonton, NJ. Image is full standing of the sisters, back to back, sharing the same skirt. Slightly light. Millie McCoy and Christine McCoy (July 11, 1851 - 1912) were American conjoined twins who went by the stage names "The Two-Headed Nightingale" and "The Eighth Wonder of the World". Millie and Christine were born on July 11, 1851 to parents who were slaves, on the plantation of Mr. Alexander McCoy, near the town of Whiteville, North Carolina. Prior to the sisters' birth, their mother had seven other children, five boys and two girls, all of ordinary size and form. They were sold to a showman, J.P. Smith, at birth, but were soon kidnapped by a rival showman. The kidnapper fled to the United Kingdom but was thwarted when the United Kingdom banned slavery. Smith traveled to Britain to collect the girls and brought with him their mother, Monimia, from whom they had been separated. He and his wife provided the twins with an education and taught them to speak five languages, play music, and sing. For the rest of the century, the twins enjoyed a successful career as "The Two-Headed Nightingale", and appeared with the Barnum circus. In 1912, Millie and Christine died of tuberculosis, 17 hours apart.
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