In the late 1800s, human zoos were popular
places to visit in various countries. One of the earliest-known human zoos was located at Moctezuma in Mexico, where there was not only a huge collection of animals but also dwarves, albinos, hunchbacks and other "unusual"
examples of humanity.
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| Charles Sherwood Stratton, with his wife Lavina Warren |
The Medicis (
political dynasty, banking family, later royal house and also four Popes of the Catholic Church) during the Renaissance, had a zoo at the Vatican in Rome, of different "races" of people, like Moors, Tartars, Indians, Turks and Africans.
Human zoos
could be found in Paris, Hamburg, Antwerp, Barcelona, London, Milan, New York, and Warsaw, during the 1870s. Samoan, Sami and Inuit
people were collected and displayed in "
natural" settings.
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| Poster advertising the Somalian Park at Jardin Zoologique Paris in 1890 |
The1878 and 1889 Parisian World's Fair presented a Negro Village. The 1889 World's Fair exhibited 400
indigenous people. The Cincinnati Zoo in the USA encouraged one hundred Sioux Native Americans to establish a village at the site and they lived there for three months.
Thankfully, times have changed.
Books To Read
Abominable Science! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids. Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero.
