Profile of Annie Jones on Famous Like Me

For details of the Australian actress, see Annie Jones (actress)

Annie Jones (circa 1860 - 1902), was a US bearded woman, born in Virginia, who toured with showman P. T. Barnum as a circus attraction. Jones apparently suffered from what is now classified as hypertrichosis.

When Jones joined Barnum's exhibition as a child of only nine months, Jones' parents received a $150-a-week salary. She was billed as a new "infant Esau." By the age of five, she had a mustache and sideburns and became well known as the "Bearded Girl." US photographer Mathew Brady took Jones' portrait as a child in 1865 . A number of additional portraits were taken of Jones during her lifetime, and were widely distributed.

In an incident which may have been a pure P. T. Barnum publicity stunt, a New York phrenologist kidnapped Jones when she was a young child. Barnum and the police found her exhibited in a church fair. When the man claimed the child as his, the matter went to court. The judge had Annie separated from the others before it was her time to testify. When the child was taken to the courtroom she went straight to her parents. The judge declared the case closed.

As an adult, Jones became the country's top "bearded lady" and acted as a spokesperson for P. T. Barnum's "Freaks", a word she tried to abolish from the business. Later in her career, Jones toured in Russia and claimed to have turned down painters who asked her to pose as Jesus. She became a musician. Jones was married – and widowed – twice.

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