Museum Collections

In 1903, Barnum and Bailey Circus added Welsh giant George Auger (?-1922), variously reported to be eight-foot-four-inches and seven-foot-five inches tall, to its stable of curiosities. Billed as "The Cardiff Giant, positively the tallest man on earth," he immediately became one of America's most recognizable public figures, especially when he paraded down the nation's main streets in his frontiersman's clothes, high-heeled boots, and a plumed hat that made him appear nine feet tall.