I was today days old when I learned that Mount Airy, North Carolina—the same small town that inspired Andy Griffith's Mayberry—opened a museum dedicated to Chang and Eng Bunker, the conjoined twins born in Siam (now Thailand) in 1811. I grew up half-knowing the story, vaguely aware that the original "Siamese twins" had settled in the mountains where I spent summers, but I never knew their actual story. Now there's a place to go learn it.
Who they actually were:
Chang and Eng were born in 1811 in Samut Songkhram province, Siam, conjoined at the breastbone by a band of tissue and cartilage. Their condition gave the world a medical term: "Siamese twins," because of where they were born. They were discovered by a Scottish merchant, toured Europe and America on exhibition tours in the 1820s and 1830s, and became international celebrities before they were 25. They performed, exhibited themselves, became wealthy from the spectacle of their existence, and then retired from public life.
In 1839, they settled in North Carolina and became U.S. citizens—possibly among the first Asian American citizens. They married sisters, Adelaide and Sarah Yates, both local women. The couple had 22 children between them. According to the museum, there are now more than 1,500 living descendants of Chang and Eng in North Carolina alone—a family line that sprawls across the state and extends back 185 years to two men who arrived as exhibition attractions and stayed to build a life.
It bears saying plainly: Chang and Eng enslaved people. That's part of the story. They were wealthy landowners in antebellum North Carolina, and wealth at that time meant slavery. The museum acknowledges this without flinching.
The museum itself:
The Siamese Twins Museum opened July 1, 2024, run by the Surry Arts Council in Mount Airy, NC. It's housed at 215 Rockford Street (across from the Andy Griffith Museum) and holds artifacts loaned by the Bunker family: a double chair they shared, Chang's flute (both featured on Antiques Roadshow), their beds from Eng's homeplace, a touring trunk, and crutches. There are letters, documents, photographs. The museum is curated by Tanya Jones, a great-great-granddaughter of Chang. Mount Airy maintains a sister-city relationship with Samut Songkhram Province, Thailand (where the twins were born). Every year the extended Bunker family holds a reunion in Mount Airy.
The discovery is that this place exists and that you can go stand in a room with the objects they touched, understanding how two conjoined twins managed to build a legacy that is still alive in a town in the mountains. Visit surryarts.org/siamesetwins/. Hours: Monday–Saturday 9am–5pm, Sunday 1pm–5pm. Admission $10, $6 for ages 12 and under. Free parking.