Ashbury Benjamin

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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.