Joseph Merrick Biography

 Quick Facts

Name

Joseph Merrick

Birth Date 

August 5, 1862

Death Date 

April 11, 1890

Place of Birth 

Leicester, England

Place of Death 

London, England

Full Name

Joseph Carey Merrick

Best known as the "Elephant Man," Joseph Carey Merrick has been the subject of many medical studies, documentaries, and works of fiction.

Synopsis

Joseph Carey Merrick was born on August 5, 1862, in Leicester, England. At a young age he began to develop physical deformities that became so extreme that he was forced to become a resident of a workhouse at age 17. Seeking to escape the workhouse several years later, Merrick found his way into a human oddities show in which he was exhibited as "The Elephant Man." 

After an unsuccessful trip to Belgium, Merrick returned to London and was eventually brought to the London Hospital. Unable to care for Merrick, the chairman of the hospital published a letter asking for public support. The resulting donations allowed the hospital to convert several rooms into living quarters for Merrick, where he would be cared for the rest of his life. He died of asphyxiation on April 11, 1890, at the age of 27. 

A Healthy Child

Joseph Carey Merrick was born on August 5, 1862, in Leicester, England, and was by all accounts a healthy child at birth. However, by the age of 5, he had developed patches of lumpy, grayish skin, which his parents attributed to his mother having been frightened by a stampeding elephant during her pregnancy. 

As Merrick grew older, he developed more severe deformities, until head and body were covered with various bony and fleshy tumors. Yet despite these infirmities, Merrick had a relatively normal childhood and attended the local school.

The Greatest Sadness in His Life

In 1873, when Merrick was just 11 years old, his mother died of bronchial pneumonia. Merrick would later describe her passing as the “greatest sadness in my life.” 

His father remarried to their landlady less than a year later, and Merrick left school to seek work, eventually finding a job rolling cigars in a factory. But within two years, his right hand had become so deformed that he could no longer do the work and was forced to leave. 

His father, who owned a haberdashery, attained a peddler’s license for him and sent him out to the streets to sell his shop’s wares. By this point, however, Merrick’s deformities were so extreme, and his speech so impaired as a result, that people were either frightened of him or unable to understand him, and his efforts were met with little success. 

When one day his father beat him severely for not earning enough money, Merrick went to live with an uncle briefly, before becoming a resident at the Leicester Union Workhouse at age 17. Merrick found life in the workhouse intolerable, but unable to find any other means of supporting himself, he was forced to stay.

In 1884, Merrick decided to try to profit from his deformities and escape life in the workhouse. He contacted Sam Torr, the proprietor of a Leicester music hall called the Gaiety Palace of Varieties, and they devised a plan to secure him a spot in a human oddities show. 

Merrick was soon exhibited as “The Elephant Man, Half-Man, Half-Elephant” to great success in Leicester and Nottingham before eventually traveling to London that November. He wore a cape and veil to conceal his deformities in public, but was often harassed by mobs as he traveled. 

In London, the Elephant Man exhibit was housed across the street from the London Hospital and was frequently visited by medical students and doctors interested in Merrick’s condition. Merrick was eventually invited by a surgeon named Frederick Treves to visit the hospital to be examined. 

The results of Treves’s examination show that, by that point, Merrick’s deformities had become extreme. His head measured 36 inches in circumference, and his right hand 12 inches at the wrist. His body was covered with tumors, and his legs and hip were so deformed that he had to walk with a cane. He was found to be in otherwise good health. 

Treves presented Merrick to the Pathological Society of London in December of that year, and asked Merrick to visit the hospital for further examination, but Merrick refused, later recalling that the experience made him feel like “an animal in a cattle market.” 

To Belgium and Back

By 1885, a distaste for freak shows had developed in Britain and Merrick and his managers decided to try to move the Elephant Man exhibit to Belgium. The show met with only mediocre success, however, and Merrick’s manager there eventually robbed him of his life savings and abandoned him. 

After finding passage on a ship back to England in June of 1886, Merrick was mobbed by a crowd at Liverpool Street Station in London and taken into custody by the police. Unable to understand Merrick, they eventually found Frederick Treves’s business card on him and took him to the London Hospital. Treves examined Merrick at the hospital and found that his condition had severely deteriorated in the previous two years. However, the hospital was considered incapable of caring for “incurables” such as him, and it seemed that Merrick would be forced to fend for himself yet again. 

A Home

When the chairman of the London Hospital, Carr Gromm, was unable to find another hospital to care for Merrick, he decided to publish a letter in the The Times describing Merrick’s case and asking for help. Gromm’s letter resulted in a sympathetic public outpouring and enough financial donations to provide Merrick with a home for the rest of his life, and in 1887, several rooms in the London Hospital were converted to living quarters for him. 

Merrick’s notoriety also resulted in his being visited by members of the British upper class, most notably the actress Madge Kendall, with whom he developed a special rapport, and Alexandra the Princess of Wales. Merrick was able to visit the theater on at least one occasion, and made trips to the countryside several times over the next few years. 

When he was at home, he spent his time conversing with Treves (one of the few people who could understand him) or writing prose and poetry. He also built an elaborate cathedral made out of playing cards for Madge Kendall.

Decline and Death

Despite Merrick’s newfound support structure, his condition continued to worsen during his time at the London Hospital. On April 11, 1890, Merrick was discovered dead, lying face down on his bed. Due to the size of his head, he had for his whole life slept sitting up, with his head resting against his knees. It was determined that Merrick had died of asphyxiation after suffering either stroke or a heart attack that caused him to fall in his bed, from which he was unable to get up. He was 27 years old.

A photograph of Joseph Merrick, known as the "Elephant Man". This photograph of Joseph Merrick, known as the "Elephant Man,” was published in the British Medical Journal with the announcement of Merrick's death in 1890.

Science and Fiction

After Merrick’s passing, Treves had plaster casts made of his body and preserved his skeleton, which has been kept on permanent display in the collections of the London Hospital. (It has been reported that pop singer Michael Jackson once tried to purchase Merrick’s bones but was refused by the hospital out of respect for Merrick.) Despite Merrick’s own belief that his deformities had indeed been the result of his mother’s encounter with an elephant, the actual causes have been a subject of much discussion since his death. Initially considered to be the result of elephantiasis, the disorder is now thought to be either an extremely severe case of neurofibromatosis and/or the result of a disease known as Proteus syndrome.

The life of Joseph Carey Merrick has also been the subject of various artistic interpretations as well. In 1979, a play by Bernard Pomerance called The Elephant Man debuted on Broadway. 

•  Benjamin Franklin Biography

In later productions of the play, the part of Merrick was played by the likes of David Bowie and Mark Hamill. The following year, an unrelated film of the same name was released. Directed by David Lynch and with John Hurt in the role of Merrick and Anthony Hopkins in the role of Treves, the film tells a mostly accurate version of the events of Merrick’s life. In 2014, a revival production of The Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper brought Pomerance’s play, and Merrick’s story, back to Broadway.

Benjamin Franklin Biography

Quick Facts

Name

Benjamin Franklin

Occupation 

Writer, Inventor, Scientist

Birth Date 

January 17, 1706

Death Date 

April 17, 1790

Education 

Boston Latin School

Place of Birth 

Boston, Massachusetts

Place of Death 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

Benjamin Franklin is best known as one of the Founding Fathers who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

Synopsis

Born in Boston in 1706, Benjamin Franklin organized the United States’ first lending library and volunteer fire department. His scientific pursuits included investigations into electricity, mathematics and mapmaking. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S Constitution, and negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which marked the end of the Revolutionary War.

Early Life

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston in what was then known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His father, Josiah Franklin, a soap and candle maker, had 17 children, seven with first wife, Anne Child, and 10 with second wife Abiah Folger. Benjamin was his 15th child and the last son.

Despite his success at the Boston Latin School, Ben was removed at 10 to work with his father at candle making, but dipping wax and cutting wicks didn’t fire his imagination. Perhaps to dissuade him from going to sea as one of his brothers had done, Josiah apprenticed Ben at 12 to his brother James at his print shop. Ben took to this like a duck to water, despite his brother’s hard treatment.

When James refused to publish any of his brother’s writing, Ben adopted the pseudonym Mrs. Silence Dogood, and “her” 14 imaginative and witty letters were published in his brother’s newspaper, The New England Courant, to the delight of the readership. But James was angry when it was discovered the letters were his brother’s, and Ben abandoned his apprenticeship shortly afterward, escaping to New York, but settling in Philadelphia, which was his home base for the rest of his life.

Franklin furthered his education in the printing trade in Philadelphia, lodging at the home of John Read in 1723, where he met and courted Read’s daughter Deborah. Nevertheless, the following year, Franklin left for London under the auspices of Pennsylvania Governor William Keith, but felt duped when letters of introduction never arrived and he was forced to find work at print shops there.

Once employed, though, he was able to take full advantage of the city’s pleasures, attending theater, mingling with the populace in coffee houses and continuing his lifelong passion for reading. He also managed to publish his first pamphlet, "A Dissertation upon Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain."

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726 to find that Deborah Read had married. In the next few years he held varied jobs such as bookkeeper, shopkeeper and currency cutter.

He also fathered a son, William, out of wedlock during this time. In late 1727, Franklin formed the “Junto,” a social and self-improvement study group for young men, and early the next year was able to establish his own print shop with a partner.

Prominent Citizen

After publishing another pamphlet, "The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency," Franklin was able to purchase The Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper from a former boss, and was elected the official printer of Pennsylvania. He was also able to take Deborah Read as his common-law wife in 1730, after her husband disappeared after stealing a slave. Their first son, Francis, was born in 1732 (although he died four years later of smallpox).

Franklin’s prominence and success grew during the 1730s, especially with the publication of Poor Richard’s Almanack at the end of 1732. Franklin amassed real estate and businesses, organized the Union Fire Company to counteract dangerous fire hazards, established a lending library so others could share his passion for reading, and was elected Grand Master of the Pennsylvania Masons, clerk of the state assembly and postmaster of Philadelphia.

The 1740s saw Franklin expanding into entrepreneurship with invention of the Franklin stove, and also into scientific pursuits. His pamphlet "A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge" underscored his interests. His beloved daughter Sarah was born in 1743. He became a soldier in the Pennsylvania militia at the age of 42, but his abiding interest in electricity was ignited at this time, too. He conducted the famous kite-and-key experiment in 1752 after some of his theories on electricity were published in England the previous year.

Public Service

Franklin was tapped as a foreign diplomat and represented the Pennsylvania Assembly, and subsequently Massachusetts, Georgia and New Jersey, in England, but he continued to work toward colonial union and in 1766 supported the repeal of the Stamp Act.

In 1775, Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and as postmaster general for the colonies, having mapped the postal routes in 1762. And in 1776, he was one of five men to draft the Declaration of Independence. Franklin was also one of the 13 men who drafted the Articles of Confederation.

Later Years

Much has been made of Franklin’s life in Paris as essentially the first U.S. ambassador to France, chiefly his romantic life. Deborah, his wife of 44 years, died in 1774, two years before he accepted the post, and Franklin had a rich romantic life in his nine years abroad. He even proposed marriage, to a widow named Madame Helvetius, at the age of 74, but she rejected him.

Franklin was embraced in France as much, if not more, for his intellectual standing in the scientific community and for his wit, as for his status as a political appointee from a fledging country. His reputation facilitated respect and entrees into closed communities, including that of King Louis XVI. And it was his adept diplomacy that led to the peace treaty with England in 1783 and other foreign alliances and trade treaties.

After almost a decade in France, Franklin returned to America in 1785. He was elected to represent Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention, which drafted and ratified the new U.S Constitution, and participated in electing George Washington as the country’s first president, inaugurated in April 1789.

He also served as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, wrote many tracts urging the abolition of slavery and petitioned the U.S Congress for it in 1790.

Successes and Failures

With so many of America’s early heroes, successes take the spotlight, while failures are rarely mentioned. But with any great entrepreneur the failures are just paving stones to the triumphs. Franklin himself said, “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”

He took his own advice. Franklin mapped the Gulf Stream, invented swim fins, the lightning rod and musical instruments, established colleges, and amassed scores of other accomplishments. His self-education earned him honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, Oxford University in England, and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

But he also began a magazine that failed, devised a new “scheme” for the alphabet that proposed to eliminate the letters C, J, Q, W, X and Y as redundant, and made disastrous political decisions that involved the leaking of letters, called the “Hutchinson Affair.” He also made an ill-advised recommendation for Pennsylvania’s stamp distribution that caused the public to misconstrue where he stood on American support. His own son William, whom he helped to achieve the governorship of New Jersey, opposed him on the unification of the colonies, which stung Franklin to the point where he mentioned it in his will almost 25 years later.

Franklin’s voracious capacity for knowledge, investigation and finding practical solutions to problems was his primary focus, as was his commitment to “doing good,” which led to the concept of paying it forward.

Death and Legacy

Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the home of his daughter, Sarah Bache. He was 84, suffered from gout and had complained of ailments for some time, completing the final codicil to his will a little more than a year and a half prior to his death.

Franklin had actually written his epitaph when he was 22: The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book Its Contents torn Out And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author. In the end, however, the stone on the grave he shared with his wife read simply, “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin 1790.”

The image of Benjamin Franklin that has come down through history, along with the image on the $100 bill, is something of a caricature—a bald man in a frock coat holding a kite string with a key attached.

But the scope of things he applied himself to was so broad it seems a shame. Founding universities and libraries, the post office, shaping the foreign policy of the fledgling United States, drafting the Declaration of Independence, publishing newspapers, warming us with the Franklin stove, pioneering advances in science, letting us see with bifocals and, yes, lighting our way with electricity—all from a man who never finished school but shaped his life through abundant reading and experience, a strong moral compass and an unflagging commitment to civic duty, and an overall wit, good humor and integrity.

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Franklin illumined corners of American life that still have the lingering glow of his attention. He was a true polymath and entrepreneur, which is no doubt why he is often called the First American. Perhaps it is a fitting image after all.