She spent her life performing around the world and her taxedermized body has been kept at a Norwegian university until now.
This is Julia Pastrana. She was a Mexican woman who suffered from hypertrichosis and gingival hyperplasia, which meant she had a thick-set jaw and lots of facial hair.
Source: nell-rose.hubpages.com
She was known as "the ugliest woman in the world," "ape woman" or "bear woman" and she toured the United States and Europe with her husband, singing and dancing for paying audiences.
Image by The Bridgeman Art Library / Getty Images
"Today, it's almost incomprehensible that a circus used [people with genetic conditions] for entertainment purposes," said Jan G. Bjaalie of the University of Oslo.
!["Today, it's almost incomprehensible that a circus used [people with genetic conditions] for entertainment purposes," said Jan G. Bjaalie of the University of Oslo.](http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr01/2013/2/13/10/enhanced-buzz-31739-1360769616-5.jpg)
Image by Universal Images Group / Getty Images
"[She] was used in a way we today would consider to be completely reprehensible," he said. "It's important that we now have a clear end to the way she was treated."
!["[She] was used in a way we today would consider to be completely reprehensible," he said. "It's important that we now have a clear end to the way she was treated."](http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr02/2013/2/13/11/enhanced-buzz-4634-1360774097-12.jpg)
Source: nell-rose.hubpages.com