OK, so this one isn’t a beautiful image. It is a rather poor photograph, in fact. But it is one of those historically interesting images one comes across occasionally, leading one to wonder — what was their life like? An Internet search did not reveal any information about this group, just a digital copy of this same image available at exorbitant prices.

The picture shows three short men, wearing typical dress suits of the time, holding hands. There is clearly a family resemblance. According to the caption, these are ‘Murays Midgets, Tripplet Brothers, Age 19 years.’ I have my doubts they were triplets, but the family resemblance is unmistakable, so perhaps they were brothers. The fellow on the left, who has moved a bit and is blurry — looks younger, while the fellow on the right, looks older than the middle gentleman, who was the tallest. Muray or Murray could be their surname, or it might be a stage name, or even the name of their manager, and the ’s’ at the end is possessive, though there is no apostrophe. There is a swirl over the r that suggests it may represent a doubled-r.

The photograph was taken by Charles Eisenmann, a New York photographer during the late 1870s and early 1880s. Charles was born in Germany about 1850. In the 1880 census his wife Dora is also listed as a photographer, so they probably ran the studio together. This image was taken right around 1880.