Nellie Keeler

Nellie Keeler as Little Queen Mab (c. 1880s) Photograph compliments of Kathy Haley Nellie Keeler (April 6, 1875 – 1903) was an American child circus performer known as Little Queen Mab.

Life

Nellie Keeler was born with dwarfism on April 6, 1875, in Kokomo, Indiana. She was the youngest of three daughters and a son raised by Ezra and Maria Keeler. Her father was a farmer and a Civil War veteran, having served with the 4th Indiana Cavalry. Ezra Keeler died in 1917 while in his seventies at a home for disabled war veterans in Marion, Indiana. Maria Keeler lived to be in her late eighties, and died in 1937 in Kokomo.

Career

By the age of three, Keeler had attracted the attention of showman P. T. Barnum through newspaper reports about her unusually small stature. At the time she reportedly weighed only and stood only a few inches taller than . After a successful four-week trial engagement in 1878, she joined Barnum's circus, touring with her father, Ezra Keeler, who accompanied her while she performed.

During her first season with the circus, Keeler performed under the stage name Little Queen Mab. She appeared on a platform about above the floor so audiences could better appreciate her size. She wore a fashionable blue cashmere costume with a short skirt and was exhibited beside Arthur James Caley Goshen, known professionally as Colonel Routh Goshen and billed as the Middlebush Giant, whom Barnum advertised as standing nearly tall and weighing more than . Keeler's contract stipulated that repeated misbehaviour could void her engagement and deprive her family of an income of $100 a month.