Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890) was an English man known for his severe physical deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "The Elephant Man", and then went to live at the London Hospital, in Whitechapel, after meeting the surgeon Sir Frederick Treves. Despite his challenges, Merrick created detailed artistic works, such as intricate models of buildings, and became well known in London society.

Merrick was born in Leicester and began to develop abnormally before the age of five. His mother died when he was eleven, after which Norman's shop was closed by the police. As a young woman, she worked as a domestic servant in Leicester before marrying Joseph Rockley Merrick, who at the time was a warehouseman, born 28 September 1867, who had physical disabilities and died of myelitis and "seizures" on 19 March 1891, aged 23. William is buried with his mother, aunts and uncles in Welford Road Cemetery in Leicester;|group=nb As he grew, a noticeable difference between the size of his left and right arms appeared, and both his feet became significantly enlarged. He wrote a speculative letter to Sam Torr, a Leicester music hall comedian and proprietor that he knew. Torr came to visit Merrick at the workhouse and decided he could make money exhibiting him; although, to retain Merrick's novelty value, he would need to be put on display as a travelling exhibit. except for the skin samples, which were later lost during the Second World War. The skeleton is still included in the pathology collection of the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, Merrick's mounted skeleton is not on public display.

His skeletal remains are kept in a glass case in a private room at the university, and can be viewed by medical students and professionals by appointment "[to] allow medical students to view and understand the physical deformities resulting from Joseph Merrick's condition." Prior to the rediscovery of his soft-tissue grave in 2019, some had contended that since he was a devout Christian, at least Merrick's skeletal remains should be given a Christian burial, in his home city of Leicester. However, the university intends to keep his skeleton at its medical school.

Medical condition

thumb|Joseph Merrick's skeleton on display at the [[Royal London Hospital]]

Ever since Merrick's days as a novelty exhibit on Whitechapel Road, his condition has remained a source of curiosity for medical professionals. His appearance at the meeting of the Pathological Society of London in 1884 drew interest from the doctors present, but gained neither the answers nor the wider attention that Treves had hoped for. The case received only a brief mention in the British Medical Journal, while the Lancet declined to mention it at all. speculated that Merrick might have had a combination of Proteus syndrome and neurofibromatosis. This hypothesis was reported by Robert Matthews, a correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph.

Legacy

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In 1923, Treves published a volume, The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences, in which he detailed what he knew of Merrick's life and his personal interactions with him. This account is the source of much of what is known about Merrick, but the book contained several inaccuracies. Merrick had never completely confided in Treves about his early life, so these details were consequently sketchy in Treves's Reminiscences. A more mysterious error is that concerning Merrick's first name; Treves, in his earlier journal articles as well as his book, persisted in calling him John Merrick. The reason for this is unknown, as Merrick clearly signed his name as "Joseph" in the examples of his handwriting that remain.

Anthropologist Ashley Montagu's book, The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity (1971), drew on Treves's book and explored Merrick's character. Merrick's life story has become the subject of several works of dramatic art, based on the accounts of Treves and Montagu. The Elephant Man, a Tony Award-winning play by American playwright Bernard Pomerance, was staged in 1979. and in subsequent productions by various actors including Philip Anglim, David Bowie, Bruce Davison, Mark Hamill and Bradley Cooper. The play toured the UK in 2023, directed by Stephen Bailey and starring Zak Ford-Williams as Merrick. This cast of this production included Annabelle Davies and Nadia Nadarajah, and off the back of this production, the play was published as a book.

It was announced in August 2018 that Charlie Heaton would be playing Merrick in a new two-part BBC drama, a decision that drew criticism from some quarters; instead of re-casting a disabled actor, the production was subsequently cancelled. In the 2019 sitcom Year of the Rabbit, Merrick was played by David Dawson as a pretentious theatrical type.

Merrick's life is the subject of Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man, an opera by composer Laurent Petitgirard.

In 2007, Merrick was inducted into the Coney Island Sideshow Hall of Fame.

References

Explanatory notes

Citations

Bibliography

  • "The Autobiography of Joseph Carey Merrick" – freak shop pamphlet printed c.&nbsp;1884 to accompany the exhibition of the Elephant Man; printed in The True History of the Elephant Man, pp.&nbsp;173–175

Further reading

  • Transcripts of the letters written to The Times newspaper by Francis Carr-Gomm, regarding Joseph Merrick.
  • Contemporary visual art reference in the work of Australian art Cameron Hayes.