- Date:
- 1870
- Original Format:
- Carte de Visite
- Item#:
- MES24551
- Photographer:
- Jeremiah Gurney
Ajax
Ajax was a dancer, choreographer, gymnast and contortionist. His more serious cultural efforts included a ballet, "The Nations," in which he danced at New York's Grand Opera House in 1870. However, better known in popular culture as "the human pincushion" or "the serpentine wonder," Ajax appeared throughout the 1870s and 80s at New York's Bowery Garten, the Grand Street Museum, the Novelty Theatre, the Aquarium, and other popular venues. Looking very distinguished for a pincushion, Ajax poses at the Gurney studio in New York.