Ashbury Benjamin
PHOTO ABOVE is from The Jeffery Kraus Collection
Ashbury Benjamin with born in 1870 from African-American parents, and developed his leopard-skin or piebald appearance as he got older. He started to perform at a very young age-- perhaps as early as 7-8 years old.
Ash was examined in 1881 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, at was pronounced by Dr. George Fox as having a condition he called leucodermis. Today we know this malady as the skin disease vitilago.