Major Stevens

At first glance, Auguste Edouart’s silhouette of Major Joseph L. M. Stevens appears to depict a boy in adult’s clothing. A closer look, however, tells a different story, as Edouart notes: “American Dwarf,” and “42 inches high / 34 years old and weight 50 pounds.” People with dwarfism captured the imagination of citizens in the 1800s. Stevens was employed by the New England Museum and the Boston Theatre, where audiences could indulge their curiosity about a man who frequently played the character “Tom Thumb.” He later took more control over his performances, booking his own venues. Stevens’s career has been overshadowed by the “other” Tom Thumb, Charles Sherwood Stratton, who achieved fame through P. T. Barnum’s shows. While Stevens’s biography goes far to recount his lively social life, the story is nonetheless tempered by the subject’s own observation. Other people, Stevens notes, wanted to spend time with him “for the object of viewing me [rather] than for the pleasure of my company.”