Being a history buff with a bent toward human anomalies I'm fascinated by this woman, billed as Katie Sandwina in her circus days. She was born in Austria to a circus family (14 kids) She started out as a baby acrobat but as she grew and began to fill out she started to lift weights, which probably consisted of a couple of those crude, round dumbbells.
She joined up with P.T. Barnum when he spotted her in a small European Circus and came to the USA, where she had an encounter with Eugen Sandow, the famed Barnum strongman. But he was a body builder, not a dead-lifter and she got a 300lb bar over her head while he could only manage chest high. He had the body beautiful but this woman was THICK, out weighing Sandow by 25lb.
These tights, revealing the massive muscle butt had to be wildly risque back then. She was 5'9" and around 200lbs in her 20's. She actually had a larger sister, six feet tall with a slighter frame. Her father was reportedly 6"9".
Katie in her forties...she must have been pushing 250-260 here! How could those tiny feet hold up all that bulk?
