The Story of the Seven Sutherland Sisters

In the late 19th century, seven talented sisters from Cambria, New York took the world by storm with their captivating performances and, more famously, their thick, flowing locks.

Born in poverty between 1845 and 1865, the sisters—Sarah, Victoria, Isabella, Grace, Naomi, Dora and Mary Sutherland—spent most of their childhood tending turkeys at their family’s farm in Cambria, New York. The girls’ father, Rev. Fletcher Sutherland, however, had grander dreams for them and so he had the young girls sing at church.

By the early 1880s the sisters, and for a brief time their brother Charles, started touring within their county to perform at churches, fairs, and community theaters. Not long after, the sisters finally made their Broadway debut and brought their act to cities in the South, including Atlanta, Georgia for the 1881 World’s Fair. The following year, the sisters had a deal to tour with W.W. Coles Colossal Shows; in two years, they joined the world-famous Barnum and Bailey’s Great Show on Earth as a sideshow attraction, with P.T. Barnum himself supposedly touting them as “the seven most pleasing wonders of the world.”

The Sutherland Sisters—with their refined, elegant, and mythical image—commanded attention everywhere they went. Highly talented performers they were, it was actually their thick and long tresses that truly captured their audience’s attention (their late mother’s habit of slathering a kind of foul-smelling oil on the girls’ tresses may or may not have helped, if not directly, caused this). At that time, high regard was put on long hair as it was supposedly the epitome of femininity. Sarah was said to have had the shortest hair among the sisters at three feet long, while Victoria had the longest at seven feet. Combined, the length of hair that the sisters amounted to an astonishing 37 feet!

Aside from being performers, the Sutherland Sisters were also regarded as America’s first celebrity models, endorsing their very own line of hair care and other cosmetic products.

At the peak of their career, the Sutherland Sisters were a household name and raked millions in profit from their act and their business. Unfortunately newer trends at the turn of the century forced the popularity of the sisters in the backseat, with bobs becoming en vogue. As the result of living extremely lavish lifestyles for years, the sisters’ fortune began to slip away as well.

The last Sutherland sister, Grace, died at 92 in 1946. As there was no more room in the Castlemaine mausoleum, her remains were buried in an unmarked grave in the family lot. Despite enjoying tremendous popularity and adoration by practically everyone, the Seven Sutherland Sisters eventually faded into obscurity.

Information in this article was sourced from Collectors Weekly and Vintage Everyday. Further reading: The Seven Sutherland Sisters on Sideshow World. To know more about the Seven Sutherland Sisters, please visit these pages.

written by Julien Matabuena on 2015-04-15 #lifestyle #vintage #sideshow #seven-sutherland-sisters #barnum-and-bailey-s-greatest-show-on-earth