Parties of Twelve and upwards, may be accommodated with a Private Exhibition of the HOTTENTOT, at No. 225 Piccadilly, between Seven and Eight o'Clock in the Evening, by giving notice to the Door-Keeper the Day previous. A woman will attend (if required).
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References
1.
LysonsDaniel, Collectanea; or a collection of advertisements and paragraphs from the newspapers relating to various subjects (2 vols, unpublished scrapbook in the British Library, London).
2.
McGrealChris, “Coming home”, Guardian, 21 June 2002, 6–7.
3.
KochEddie, “Bring back the Hottentot Venus”, Weekly Mail and Guardian, 15–22 June 1995, 13.
4.
A note concerning terminology: Throughout the paper African peoples are referred to by terms drawn from indigenous languages; thus, ‘Hottentot’ and ‘Bushmen’ are replaced by Khoikhoi and San respectively (or “Khoisan” to denote their modern descendents). Older names are restricted to quotations from original sources or passages in which it is clear the historical sense is intended. Contemporary accounts usually refer to Baartman as the “Hottentot Venus” or “Saartjie” (“little Sara” in Dutch). However, because of the link with slavery, as discussed later in the article, the adult form “Sara” is used in preference throughout whilst “Saartjie” and her baptized name “Sarah” are restricted to quotations.
5.
Extensive discussion of, and allusion to, the famous “Hottentot Venus” has given Baartman's story a certain familiarity but hides the fact that no one knows much for certain, least of all exactly who she was. The account presented here is largely inference from a few official documents, newspaper reports, songs, and cartoons. Unless otherwise indicated, biographical information regarding Baartman is taken from newspaper reports, cited as relevant; Lysons, op. cit. (ref. 1); the official court records as reprinted in StrotherZoë S., “Display of the body Hottentot”, in LindforsBernth (ed.), Africans on stage: Studies in ethnological show business (Bloomington, IL, 1999), 1–61; AltickRichard, The shows of London (Cambridge, MA, 1978); and KirbyPercival, “The Hottentot Venus”, Africana notes and news, v (1949), 55–62, “More about the Hottentot Venus”, Africana notes and news, x (1953), 124–34, and “The ‘Hottentot Venus’ of the Musée de l'Homme, Paris”, South African journal of science, x (1954), 319–22.
6.
See Altick, op. cit. (ref. 5); GilmanSander, “Black bodies, white bodies: Toward an iconography of female sexuality in late nineteenth-century art, medicine, and literature”, in GatesHenry LouisJr (ed.), “Race”, writing, and difference (Chicago, 1985), 223–61, and Difference and pathology: Stereotypes of sexuality, race and madness (Ithaca, NY, 1985); Fausto-SterlingAnne, “Gender, race, and nation: The comparative anatomy of ‘Hottentot’ women in Europe, 1815–1817”, in TerryJenniferUrlaJacqueline (eds), Deviant bodies: Critical perspectives on difference in science and popular culture (Bloomington, IL, 1995), 19–48; SchiebingerLonda, Nature's body: Gender in the making of modern science (Boston, MA, 1993); LindforsBernth, “The Hottentot Venus and other African attractions in nineteenth-century England”, Australasian drama studies, i (1983), 83–104, “The bottom line: African caricature in Georgian England”, World literature written in English, xxiv (1984), 43–51, and “Ethnological show business: Footlighting the dark continent”, in ThomsonRosemarie G. (ed.), Freakery: Cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body (New York, 1996), 207–18; AbrahamsYvette, “Disempowered to consent: Sara Bartman and Khoisan slavery in the nineteenth-century Cape colony and Britain”, South African historical journal, xxxv (1996), 89–114, and “Images of Sara Bartman: Sexuality, race, and gender in early-nineteenth-century Britain”, in PiersonRuth R.ChaudryNupur (eds), Nation, empire, colony: Historicizing gender and race (Bloomington, IL, 1998), 220–36; MagubaneZine, “Which bodies matter? Feminism, poststructuralism, race, and the curious theoretical odyssey of the ‘Hottentot Venus’”, Gender and society, xv (2001), 816–34; and BadouGérard, L'énigme de la Vénus Hottentote ([Paris], 2000). See also GouldStephen Jay, “The Hottentot Venus”, in The flamingo's smile (New York, 1985), 291–305.
7.
It is beyond the scope of this article to provide a full historiographical account of the Baartman literature. Readers are referred to the excellent paper by Magubane (ref. 6) for the most detailed and historically sensitive analysis that I have found.
8.
For changing representations of the Khoikhoi see Strother, op. cit. (ref. 5); Schiebinger, op. cit. (ref. 6); and PrattMary L., Imperial eyes (London, 1992).
9.
For the imperial importance of botany see DraytonRichard, Nature's government: Science, imperial Britain and the improvement of the world (New Haven, 2000); MillerDavid P.ReillPeter H. (eds). Visions of empire: Voyages, botany, and representations of nature (Cambridge, 1996); and GroveRichard H., Green imperialism: Colonial expansion, tropical edens, and the origins of environmentalism, 1600–1860 (Cambridge, 1995). For zoos and menageries see HoageRobert J.DeissWilliam A. (eds), New worlds, new animals (London, 1996); RitvoHarriet, The animal estate: The English and other creatures in the Victorian age (London, 1987); and BaratayEricHardoiun-FugierElisabeth, Zoo: A history of zoological gardens in the West (London, 2002). For more on natural history see JardineNicholasSecordJames A.SparyEmma C., The cultures of natural history (Cambridge, 1995).
10.
SivasundaramSujit, “Natural history spiritualized: Civilising islanders, cultivating breadfruit, and collecting souls”, History of science, xxxix (2001), 417–43. The article discusses the display of three Khoikhoi converts, including a man.
11.
For an alternative perspective on Khoikhoi enslavement see AbrahamsYvette, “Disempowered to consent” (ref. 6). Baartman's legal status is the subject of much debate in the literature. Since there is little in the primary sources other than circumstantial evidence and a discussion of the legal issues is beyond the limits of this paper, readers are referred to Abrahams.
12.
Strother, op. cit. (ref. 5), 48, note 2.
13.
Nothing more is known about Cezar. KirbyPercival, op. cit. (ref. 5), suggests he may have been Peter Cezar's brother, and possibly the keeper to whom contemporary accounts of Baartman's show refer (since the name is Dutch and the keeper spoke to Sara in Dutch).
14.
The classic work on London's entertainment scene during the period is Altick, op. cit. (ref. 5). However, readers may also find Lysons, op. cit. (ref. 1); Lindfors, Africans on stage (ref. 5); and FrostThomas, The old showmen and the old London fairs (London, 1874) and Circus life and circus celebrities (London, 1875) helpful. The largest collection of primary material is available at the John Johnson Collection of Ephemera, the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
15.
Court Records, as reprinted in Strother, op. cit. (ref. 5) 43.
16.
ChambersRobert (ed.), The book of days: A miscellany of popular antiquities, in connection with the calendar (2 vols, London and Edinburgh, 1863), ii, 621.
17.
MatthewsMrs, Memoirs of Charles Matthews, comedian (4 vols, London, 1839), iv, 133. For more on the late nineteenth century see RydellRobert W., All the world's a fair: Visions of empire at American international expositions, 1876–1916 (Chicago, 1984), and GreenhalghPaul, Emphemeral vistas: The expositions universelles, great exhibitions and world's fairs, 1851–1939 (Manchester, 1988).
18.
Matthews, op. cit. (ref. 17), iv, 137.
19.
For more on Crackham see WoodGaby, The smallest of all persons mentioned in the records of littleness (London, 1998).
20.
Cited in HaywardArthur L., The days of Dickens: A glance at some aspects of early Victorian London (London, 1926), 57.
21.
See Ritvo, op. cit. (ref. 9), and HoageDeiss (eds), op. cit. (ref. 9).
22.
Displaying foreign peoples was not new but such shows did proliferate in the nineteenth century and reached their peak under the aegis of the large-scale world fairs that followed in the wake of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The current literature on ethnological human display in the early nineteenth century is limited. However, for more see Altick, op. cit. (ref. 5); Lindfors, Africans on stage (ref. 5); and Lysons, op. cit. (ref. 1). See also “Human Freaks 4”. available at the John Johnson Collection of Ephemera, the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
23.
This account is based upon the court records, as reprinted in Strother, op. cit. (ref. 5), and the following newspaper articles: “An Englishman”, letter to the editor. Morning Chronicle, 12 October 1810, 3; CezarHendrick, “The Hottentot Venus”, letter to the editor, Morning Chronicle, 13 October 1810, 3; Humanitas, “Female Hottentot”, letter to the editor, Morning Chronicle, 17 October 1810, 3; A Man and a Christian, letter, Morning Post, 18 October 1810; CezarHendrick, letter to the editor, Morning Chronicle, 23 October 1810, 4; Humanitas, “Female Hottentot”, Morning Chronicle, 24 October 1810, 3; ManWhite, letter, Morning Post, 29 October 1810, 3; “Law report; Court of King's Bench”, The Times (London), 26 November 1810, 3; “Law intelligence; Court of King's Bench, Sat., Nov. 24; the Hottentot Venus”, Morning Chronicle, 26 November 1810, 3; “Law intelligence; Court of King's Bench, Nov. 28; the Hottentot Venus”, Morning Chronicle, 29 November 1810, 3; and “Law report; Court of King's Bench”, The Times (London), 29 November 1810, 3.
24.
Morning Chronicle, 12 Oct. 1810 (ref. 23).
25.
Morning Chronicle, 23 Oct. 1810 (ref. 23).
26.
Historians are still debating the nature of this agreement, some arguing that Baartman was a slave sold to Cezar whilst others argue that she may have been lured to England upon false promises of earning her fortune through publicly exhibiting herself. It is generally agreed that the contract Dunlop presented at the court case was a ploy to win the case and continue exhibiting Baartman.
27.
Unless otherwise stated, this history of black presence is based upon EdwardsPaulWalvinJames, Black personalities in the era of the slave trade (Baton Rouge, 1983); McCalmanIain, Radical underworld: Prophets, revolutionaries, and pornographers in London, 1795–1840 (Cambridge, 1988); GerzinaGretchen H., Black England: Life before emancipation (London, 1995); and FryerPeter, Staying power: The history of black people in Britain (London, 1984). For more on abolition, see EltisDavidWalvinJames (eds), The abolition of the Atlantic slave trade: Origins and effects in Europe, Africa, and the Americas (Wisconsin, 1981).
28.
EdwardsWalvin, op. cit. (ref. 27).
29.
Altick, op. cit. (ref. 5) 221.
30.
DabydeenDavid, Hogarth's blacks: Images of blacks in eighteenth century English art (Manchester, 1987).
31.
Cited in EdwardsWalvin, op. cit. (ref. 27) 42.
32.
For Wedderburn see WedderburnRobert, The horrors of slavery, and other writings, ed. by McCalmanIain (Edinburgh, 1991), and Iain McCalman, Radical underworld (ref. 27), 50–72. For Equiano see WalvinJames, An African's life: The life and times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745–1797 (London, 1998), and EdwardsWalvin, op. cit. (ref. 27), especially 119–41.
33.
Lysons, op. cit. (ref. 1).
34.
For more on slavery see CurtinPhilip D., The Atlantic slave trade: A census (Madison, 1969), and LinebaughPeterRedikerMarcus, The many headed hydra: Sailors, slaves, commoners, and the hidden history of the revolutionary Atlantic (Boston, 2000).
35.
This quotation is from the original certificate of baptism as reproduced in Kirby, “The Hottentot Venus” (ref. 5). The original is held at the Musée de l'Homme.
36.
Baartman's exhibition is lampooned in “The ballad of John Higginbottom of Bath” which is frequently cited in the literature, see Kirby, “The Hottentot Venus” (ref. 5), 57, and Abrahams, “Images of Sara Bartman” (ref. 6), 232–3. Newspaper clippings in Lysons, op. cit. (ref. 1), record references in the Manchester papers, while further reports appear as “The Hottentot female”, Wheeler's Manchester Chronicle, 7 December 1811, 4, and “That beautiful, amiable object…”, Cowdroy's Manchester Gazette, 14 December 1811, 3. Baartman's appearance in Ireland is recorded in LenihanMaurice, Limerick, its histories and antiquities, ecclesiastical, civil and military (Dublin, 1866), 416. I am indebted to Bill Rolston for the reference to Baartman's exhibition in Ireland.
37.
Saint-HilaireÉtienne GeoffroyCuvierFrédéric, Histoire naturelle des mammifères (4 vols, Paris, 1824–47), i. The actual examination at the Jardin des Plantes was conducted by Georges Cuvier, amongst others, but was reprinted by his brother in the Histoire naturelle.
38.
HonourHugh, The image of the black in western art (4 vols, Houston, 1989), iv, 47. Honour demonstrates that although an artist's role in ethnographic illustration was theoretically limited to simple recording, many techniques were used to create images which in fact drew on, and perpetuated, racialized mythologies such as the ‘noble savage’.
39.
CuvierGeorges, “Extrait d'observations faites sur le cadavre d'une femme connue à Paris et à Londres sous le nom de Vénus Hottentotte”, Mémoires du Musée Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle, iii (1817), 259–74.
40.
For a full account of the correspondence, including a reprint of the original letter, see Badou, op. cit. (ref. 6), 149–56.
41.
CuvierGeorges, op. cit. (ref. 39). A shorter version of the paper accompanies the drawings of Baartman as “Femme de race Boschimanne” in Saint-HilaireCuvier, op. cit. (ref. 37), i, 1–4. For the most detailed discussion of Cuvier's paper and its political significance, see Fausto-Sterling, op. cit. (ref. 6).
42.
See CowlingMary, The artist as anthropologist: The representation of type and character in Victorian art (Cambridge, 1989), and HartleyLucy, Physiognomy and the meaning of expression in nineteenth-century culture (Cambridge, 2001).
43.
For more on Cuvier see OutramDarinda, Georges Cuvier: Vocation, science and authority in post-revolutionary France (Manchester, 1984). For more on the Jardin des Plantes see SparyEmma C., Utopia's garden: French natural history from old regime to revolution (London, 2000).
44.
GuentherMathias Georg, “From ‘brutal savages’ to ‘harmless people’: Notes on the changing Western image of the Bushmen”, Paideuma, xxvi (1980), 123–40.
45.
Cuvier's views on transmutation were subject to change, but by 1812 he was arguing against great leaps in nature. See Outram, op. cit. (ref. 43), 118–28.
46.
Quotation in Strother, op. cit. (ref. 5) 20.
47.
Fausto-Sterling, op. cit. (ref. 6), is one of the few historians who directly cites this literature, but even her discussion of it is limited as she focuses upon the work of Cuvier and de Blainville. In addition to Cuvier's work, op. cit. (ref. 39), see (in chronological order): de BlainvilleHenri, “Sur une femme de la race Hottentote”, Bulletin du Société Philomatique de Paris, 1816, 183–90; MüllerJohannes, “Ueber die äusseren Geslechtstheile der Buschmänninnen”, Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie und wissenschaftliche Medicin, 1834, 319–45 (note: Müller used the body of a Khoisan woman who had died in Germany, and not Baartman, as the focus of his article); Frederick Tiedemann, “On the brain of a Negro, compared with that of the European and the Orang-Outang”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London, cxxvi (1836), 497–558; MarshallJohn, “On the brain of a Bushwoman; and on the brains of two idiots of European descent”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London, cliv (1864), 501–58; FlowerW. H.MurieJames, “Account of the dissection of a Bushwoman”, Journal of anatomy and physiology, i (1867), 189–208; and SpitzkaEdward A., “A study of the brains of six eminent scientists and scholars belonging to the American Anthropometric Society, together with a description of the skull of Professor E. D. Cope”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, xxi (1908), 175–308. For a detailed and helpful overview of this research in relation to the debates on Khoisan genitalia originally found in travel literature, see BakerJohn R., Race (London, 1974), 313–24.
48.
Marshall, “On the brain of a Bushwoman” (ref. 47), 514, added emphasis.
49.
This is one of many illustrations where the same hierarchy of specimens is presented.
50.
PrichardJames Cowles, The natural history of Man; comprising inquiries into the modifying influence of physical and moral agencies on the different tribes of the human family, 2nd edn (London, 1845), 123–8.
51.
To my knowledge the only work discussed here that has not previously been cited in the Baartman literature is that of James Prichard, William Somerville. and a paper that appeared in The lancet in 1832 (see ref. 57).
SomervilleWilliam. “On the structure of Hottentot women”, in EdnaBrownlowFrank (eds), William Somerville's narrative of his journeys to the Eastern Cape frontier and to Lake Lattakoe, 1799–1802 (Cape Town, 1979), 236–41. I am indebted to Jim Secord for this reference.
54.
Ibid., 238.
55.
Ibid., 239.
56.
Somerville prepared a manuscript which he deposited at the Royal Society in 1806 with three explicit illustrations that remain unpublished. This paper was later published as “Observationes quaedam de Hottentotis”, Medico-chirurgical transactions, vii (1816), 154–60. An English translation of this paper appeared as “On the structure of Hottentot women” (ref. 53). in 1979. I am indebted to Jim Secord for bringing these references to my attention.
57.
Anon., “Anatomical description of the organs of generation in a Hottentot female”, The lancet, xix (1832), 147–9.
58.
Badou, op. cit. (ref. 6), 157–8.
59.
“Choses rare ou choses belles ici savamment assemblées instruisent l'oeil à regarder comme jamais encore vues toutes choses qui sont au monde.”.
60.
The museological discussion presented here is based upon Kirshenblatt-GimblettBarbara, “Objects of ethnography”, in KarpIvanLavineSteven D. (eds). Exhibiting cultures: The poetics and the politics of museum display (London, 1991), 386–443; EttemaMichael J., “History museums and the culture of materialism”, in BlattiJo (ed.), Past meets present: Essays about historic interpretation and public audiences (London, 1987), 62–93: And VergoPeter (ed.), The new museology (London, 1989). Perhaps the most useful of these for understanding Baartman's function as an artefact is Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. She argues that the “artfulness of the ethnographic object is an art of excision, of detachment, an art of the excerpt”. Furthermore, she suggests that the term “ethnographic fragment” may be more helpful in conceptualizing the role of ethnographic display since it can refer both to the “physical act of producing the fragments” and the “detached attitude that makes that fragmentation and appreciation possible”. Thus objects displayed in museums can act essentially as metonyms for the cultures and peoples they represent; that is, the object becomes “a part that stands in a contiguous relation to an absent whole that may or may not be recreated” (p. 388). Thus, with respect to Baartman, she symbolizes Africa through a chain of associations that link her to the Khoikhoi, African women, Africa and Black peoples. Unfortunately, I have been unable to reproduce a photograph of the museum vitrine here. However, readers will find a photograph in Kunapipi, ii/1 (1980), 29.
61.
For a discussion of anthropological photography see EdwardsElizabeth, Raw histories: Photographs, anthropology, and museums (Oxford, 2001).
62.
See Badou, op. cit. (ref. 6), 185–92.
63.
WebsterPaul, “France keeps a hold on black Venus”, Guardian, 1 April 2000.
64.
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain and others, La sculpture ethnographique au xixe siècle: De la Vénus hottentote à la Tehura de Gauguin, Musée d'Orsay, 16 mars – 12 juin 1994 (Paris, 1994). The catalogue includes a photograph of the body cast with no means of hiding the full length of the tablier from public inspection, suggesting she was exhibited ‘naked’ in the Musée d'Orsay. This only serves to make the cast appear even more explicit than the accompanying material on exhibition.
65.
EvansDavid (eds), Herschel at the Cape: Diaries and correspondence of Sir John Herschel, 1834–1838 (Austin. TX, 1969), 42.
66.
GaltonFrancis, Narrative of an explorer in tropical South Africa: Being an account of a visit to Damaraland in 1851, 4th edn (London, 1891), 54.
67.
DavisonPatricia, “Human subjects as museum objects: A project to make life-casts of ‘Bushmen’ and ‘Hottentots’, 1907–1924”, Annals of the South African Museum, cii/5 (1993), 165–83, p. 169.
68.
SkotnesPippa (ed.), Miscast: Negotiating the presence of the Bushmen (Cape Town, 1996). The book was published to accompany an exhibition on historical representations of Khoisan bodies.
69.
SwarnsRachel L., “Bones in museum cases may get decent burials”, New York Times. 4 November 2000, 4. The article notes that the museum is planning to remove the exhibition but a date is not specified. The display is made up of body casts taken from live subjects; for a discussion of their manufacture, see Davison, op. cit. (ref. 67).
70.
HarawayDonna, “Teddy bear patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908–36”, in her Primate visions: Gender, race, and nature in the world of modern science (London, 1989), 26–58. Haraway's discussion of the Natural History Museum in New York has subtly established the use of taxidermic display to encode imperialist fantasies and reinforce the mythology associated with exploration and conquest.
71.
FuscoCoco, “The other history of intercultural performance”, in her English is broken here (New York, 1995), 37–63, p. 39.
72.
Ibid., 47, added emphasis.
73.
Fusco's analysis of visitor responses is most interesting when she begins to differentiate them upon the basis of gender, social background, and ethnic origin. Despite the sometimes significant differences, the concern with authenticity and literalism emerges as an almost universal response.
74.
Even in the court records for which Baartman was interviewed, her responses are in terms of reported speech rather than direct quotation.
75.
Little work has been done to recover Baartman's perspective explicitly; in this respect Abrahams's work is valuable and rare. Indeed, writers like Abrahams oppose their attempts to recover agency to the “fairly typical … approach of white male academics to the study of Sara Bartman” which is characterized as “analysis [replaced] with name calling”. Quotation in Abrahams, “Images of Sara Bartman” (ref. 6), 222. See also AlexanderElizabeth, “The Venus Hottentot”, in her The Venus Hottentot (Charlottesville, 1990), 3–7, and GrayStephen, “Hottentot Venus”, in his Hottentot Venus and other poems (London, 1979), 1–2.
76.
In a relatively new and highly political focus within the literature, Baartman's story is argued to be emblematic of the Western representation of black female sexuality as deviant. For a general discussion, particularly of the modern media, see bell hooks [sic], “Selling hot pussy: Representations of black female sexuality in the cultural marketplace”, in ConboyKatieMedinaNadiaStanburySarah (eds), Writing on the body: Female embodiment and feminist theory (New York, 1997), 113–28.
77.
Universal Negro Improvement Association. For the exhibition catalogue see FarrRagnar (ed.). Mirage: Enigmas of race, difference and desire (London, 1995).
78.
ReadAlan (ed.), The fact of blackness: Frantz Fanon and visual representation (Seattle, 1996), 150, added emphasis.
79.
For Baartman's return, see DaleySuzanne, “Exploited in life and death, South African to go home”, New York Times, 30 January 2002, 4; HearstDavid, “African woman going home after 200 years”, Guardian, 30 April 2002; and ZilwaObed, “Sold as a slave, exhibited as a freak, Sarah finds dignity after 200 years”, Independent, 10 August 2002, 12.
