Anna Haining Bates

Anna Haining Bates, born Anna Haining Swan (August 6, 1846 – August 5, 1886), was a Canadian from Mill Brook, Colchester County, Nova Scotia famed for her unusual height: between 8 feet and 8 feet 1 inch tall (about 2.45 m).

When visiting a circus in Halifax with which Martin Van Buren Bates — another enormously tall person — was travelling, she was spotted by the promoter and hired on the spot. The giant couple became a touring sensation and eventually fell in love and married. See the article on Martin Van Buren Bates for a biography of the rest of her life until her death in 1886 in Seville, Ohio.

External Link

• A giant of a woman: Anna Haining Swan
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• A photograph of Swan