Peoples on Parade: Exhibitions, Empire, and Anthropology in Nineteenth-Century BritainIn May 1853, Charles Dickens paid a visit to the “savages at Hyde Park Corner,” an exhibition of thirteen imported Zulus performing cultural rites ranging from songs and dances to a “witch-hunt” and marriage ceremony. Dickens was not the only Londoner intrigued by these “living curiosities”: displayed foreign peoples provided some of the most popular public entertainments of their day. At first, such shows tended to be small-scale entrepreneurial speculations of just a single person or a small group. By the end of the century, performers were being imported by the hundreds and housed in purpose-built “native” villages for months at a time, delighting the crowds and allowing scientists and journalists the opportunity to reflect on racial difference, foreign policy, slavery, missionary work, and empire. Peoples on Parade provides the first substantial overview of these human exhibitions in nineteenth-century Britain. Sadiah Qureshi considers these shows in their entirety—their production, promotion, management, and performance—to understand why they proved so commercially successful, how they shaped performers’ lives, how they were interpreted by their audiences, and what kinds of lasting influence they may have had on notions of race and empire. Qureshi supports her analysis with diverse visual materials, including promotional ephemera, travel paintings, theatrical scenery, art prints, and photography, and thus contributes to the wider understanding of the relationship between science and visual culture in the nineteenth century. Through Qureshi’s vibrant telling and stunning images, readers will see how human exhibitions have left behind a lasting legacy both in the formation of early anthropological inquiry and in the creation of broader public attitudes toward racial difference. |
Contents
Ladies and Gentlemen I Bring You | 1 |
Street Spectacles | 13 |
Metropolitan Encounters | 99 |
The Natural History of Race | 183 |
Afterlives | 271 |
Acknowledgments | 285 |
Terminology | 287 |
Abbreviations | 288 |
Notes | 289 |
Bibliography | 343 |
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Peoples on Parade: Exhibitions, Empire, and Anthropology in Nineteenth ... Sadiah Qureshi Limited preview - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
Aborigines advertising Anthropological Institute Anthropology argued Aztec Bakhoje Bartola Britain British Bushmen Caldecott Cape Catlin CHAPTER Charles Chicago Press claims collection Colonial and Indian consumers context Crystal Palace Culture discussion Earl's Court Earthmen Egyptian Hall Empire England entertainment ethnic Ethnological Ethnological Society European example Farini's featured FIGURE foreign Freaks handbills Hottentot Venus human displays human variety Ibid Illustrated London images Imperial Indian Exhibition interest interpreted Ioway James Cowles Prichard John Journal Kafirs Khoekhoe kind permission Knox Latham lecture living Maximo and Bartola Mayhew missionary Museum Native Natural History Ndebele newspaper nineteenth century Oxford pamphlets patrons performers political promotional materials Race relevant Richard Robert Sara Baartman Savage South Africa Science show's showmen shows social Society of London South Africa specimens streets suggests Sydenham tion travel literature tribes urban spectators Victorian visitors visual W. H. R. Rivers World Xhosa Zulu