José Guadalupe Posada's Illustrations of "Freak" Births

Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada became well-known for his satirical and political drawings featuring calaveras, or skulls, around the turn of the 20th century. Indeed, Posada is one of the reasons that decorated skulls became associated with Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. But Posada had interests beyond those calaveras.

Posada illustrated newspapers and magazines that would be referred to as tabloids today- literature aimed at entertaining the general public, and the more sensational a story, the better. When a photograph wasn't available, or wasn't as exciting as an illustration, Posada would draw a picture and create an engraving. Among those were many stories of unusual births, often referred to as monsters or freaks in those days. These included children with extra limbs, conjoined twins, and stories that are hard to swallow. The illustration above accompanied a story of a woman who gave birth to three children and four animals. See more of Posada's illustrations of what were called "freaks of nature" at the Public Domain Review. -via Nag on the Lake