Potter & Potter Auctions
Live Auction

Circus, Sideshow & Oddities

Sat, Jun 26, 2021 12:00PM EDT
Lot 109

[TRANSGENDER] Lot of 4 ?Man-Woman? Items of Nicholai De Ray...

Estimate: $500 - $700

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$30 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $200
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000
[TRANSGENDER] Lot of 4 ?Man-Woman? Items of Nicholai De Raylan and Others. Including a cabinet photo by Mrs. W.A. Reed (Quincy, IL); a photo postcard (RPPC) by Kite Studio (Chicago), annotated and dated 1906 on the face; a pitch booklet, ?The Story of Nicholai DeRaylan;? and a 19th century quarter-plate daguerreotype of a ?man-woman? or gender ambiguous subject, in a later wooden case. DeRaylan was born in Russia around 1873, the possible illegitimate child of a member of the nobility. In order to seek a share of her mother?s fortune, DeRaylan presented to authorities as a boy, hoping to better the chances of receiving an inheritance. Faced with a medical examination to determine her sex, De Raylan fled the country, eventually settling in Chicago around the 1893 World?s Fair. De Raylan lived and worked as a man in Chicago, even marrying two women, before dying from tuberculosis in 1906. It was only after De Raylan?s death when the story of his ?secret,? ?18 year masquerade? as a man became a sensationalized news story, reported across the country.