Millie Edwards

A carte-de-visite portrait of the diminutive celebrity Millie Edwards, who caused a sensation when she appeared in London at the Royal Aquarium in 1882. According to the publicity printed on the reverse of the mount, she was 14 years old and only 21 inches high.

She was back again the following year, this time with fellow Lilliputian General Mite. According to a report in the Times (27 December 1883), ‘General Mite and Millie Edwards, who can claim for themselves the more or less proud distinction of being the smallest adult human beings extant, received large numbers of holiday visitors at their lévees [sic] yesterday in Piccadilly-hall. This young man and woman, who are aged respectively 16 and 19, and were born in the United States, and not unknown to London sightseers. Since the close of their first visit to this country these interesting little people have made a tour of the principal cities in Germany and France, and so far from having been harmed thereby have returned with improved, though not enlarged, physique, and certainly with increased accomplishments, as is shown by the not unpleasing and fairly accurate manner in which the General sings the lieder and the chansons of the countries which he has visited. He has also improved in salutatory skill, as is proved by the way in which the tiny warrior whirls his tinier partner through the evolutions of the valse. The studies of the young lady and gentleman in the art of equitation have not been neglected either; they direct and control the curvettings of the tiny steeds with which they have been provided with much skill and grace.’

Photographed by Brown, Barnes and Bell.