Charles Sherwood Stratton stopped growing at six months old, yet he became one of the first global celebrities of the 19th century. Born in 1838 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he was recruited by P.T. Barnum at age four, trained to sing, dance, and impersonate figures like Napoleon, and rebranded as General Tom Thumb.

This deep dive traces how a boy with pituitary dwarfism toured Europe before royalty, married Lavinia Warren in a spectacle that gripped Civil War America, and amassed enough wealth to eventually bail out and partner with Barnum himself. It examines the blurred line between the man and the manufactured brand, and questions who really deserves credit for the empire he helped build.

• How pituitary dwarfism kept Charles perfectly proportioned but miniature
• Barnum's decision to lie about the four-year-old's age to c ...