About
American circus "curiosity" known as the "Camel Girl" because of a rare medical condition that caused her knees to bend backward. She toured with W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus, appearing in newspapers wherever the circus visited, and by 1886 was the circus' feature star.
Before Fame
She started her sideshow career around 1884, mostly in St. Louis and New Orleans.
Trivia
Because of the unusual structure of her anatomy, called congenital genu recurvatum (aka "back knee deformity"), walking on all fours proved more comfortable for her.
Family Life
She was born Ella Evans Harper in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Her father was a farmer. She had a twin brother named Everett Harper who died on April 4, 1870, three months after his birth. She quit the circus in 1886. She married a bookkeeper and schoolteacher. She had a daughter who died six months after being born.
Associated With
Other circus sideshow performers of her era include the conjoined twin brothers Chang and Eng (Chang Bunker), the four-legged Myrtle Corbin, bearded lady Annie Jones Elliot, and little person General Tom Thumb.
