Symphony in Hair, No. 1: The Minnesota Woolly Girl
Ink drawing on paper, 9.75 x 5 inches (24.77 x 12.7 cm)
When Alice Elizabeth Doherty was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in March 1887, her parents were surprised to find that her body was covered in several inches of fine blond hair. Doherty had a rare medical condition, hypertrichosis lanuginosa, which causes excessive hair growth. Realizing their child’s potential for a successful career in show business, her parents began to exhibit her as a human oddity sideshow attraction from the age of two. She would be billed and remembered as “The Minnesota Woolly Girl” but sometimes appeared under a banner that simply read “Alice.”
By the time Doherty reached her teens, she was a popular attraction across the American midwest. Despite the financial boon her shows brought to her family, Alice did not enjoy performing. After 26 years in the novelty entertainment business, Alice Doherty comfortably retired in 1915. She died in Dallas, Texas, in June 1933 due to bronchial pneumonia.
This portrait of Alice Doherty is based upon James McNeill Whistler’s portait of his mistress Joanna Heffernan, “Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl,” which is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.