1860s CDV Hoomio & Iola Wild Australian Children NYC Dime Museum Civil War For Sale

Up for sale is an exceptionally rare and historically significant mid-19th-century carte de visite (CDV) capturing Hoomio and Iola, the famous microcephalic siblings billed on the American dime museum, circus, and sideshow circuits as "The Wild Australian Children" (or "The Wild Children of Australia").
Posed seated side-by-side in ornate Victorian parlor chairs against a mottled studio backdrop, the subjects wear matching costumes and buttoned boots. Photographed during the height of Victorian public fascination with human curiosities and evolutionary debates—where showmen shamelessly marketed microcephalic performers as "missing links" to eager audiences—this piece represents a premier cornerstone collectible of 19th-century entertainment history and antique photography. Institutional rarity is underscored by the fact that corresponding examples and variants are held in major research collections, including archival materials and formats preserved at institutions like Yale University and the National Library of Australia.Fredricks was one of the notable American portrait photographers of the carte-de-visite era and photographed numerous prominent personalities and performers.Of particular significance, the State Library of New South Wales preserves a closely corresponding Charles D. Fredricks photograph of Hoomio and Iola, likewise bearing the 587 Broadway studio identification and catalogued circa 1865.ORIGINAL CIVIL WAR REVENUE STAMPAffixed to the reverse is an original 2-cent U.S. Internal Revenue stamp bearing George Washington, with period manuscript cancellation.Federal taxes were imposed on photographs during the Civil War era, making surviving tax-stamped photographs especially useful for dating.The stamp provides compelling period evidence placing this CDV within the narrow 1864–1866 Civil War-era photographic tax period.A scarce and highly evocative Civil War-era photographic artifact documenting two of the best-known “human curiosity” performers of the 19th-century American exhibition circuit.100% original period photograph — not a reproduction.