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1998.211.4.2

"Farini's Earthmen", a group of San brought to England in the 1880s and exhibited to the public at the Royal Aquarium in 1884. Studio portrait with a man, possibly the showman Farini (the American William Leonard Hunt).

1998.211.4.2

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Collection type
Photograph
Description
"Farini's Earthmen", a group of San brought to England in the 1880s and exhibited to the public at the Royal Aquarium in 1884. Studio portrait with a man, possibly the showman Farini (the American William Leonard Hunt).
Cultural groups
Khoe-San
Date / Period
Date of photograph: Circa 1884
Acquisition information
Donated: Donated
Photographic process
Print albumen paper
Dimensions
Length x Width 105 x 146 mm, Length x Width 305 x 456 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1998.211.4.2 Previous PRM number: B.11.4.b
Research and responses

N.B. White male is standing on a box behind group to accentuate the publicized diminutiveness of the Bushmen. [CM 6.8.1998]

Associated publications
Research publication - Reproduced in: P. Skotnes (ed.) Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of the Bushmen p.40 with caption "Farini's "African Earthmen". A family "from the Orange River" who had been persuaded by Mr W. A. Healey with sugar and coffee to travel to London for exhibition in the 1880s. Some of the group had escaped in Cape Town, but were later recaptured and brought to England as the possessions of their exhibitors, who claimed to have saved them from slavery. (See Dell 1994)" [JD 2/11/2005] Research publication - Reproduced in: P. Skotnes (ed.) Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of the Bushmen p.16. with caption "Farini's "African Pygmies or Dwarf Earthmen", exhibited in England in the 1880s. Admission was advertised at one shilling and "viewing" was from 2.30 to 6.00 and from 8.00 to 10 p.m. The programme included "Stalking the Ostrich", "Shooting with Poisoned Arrows" and "Exciting Torture Dances over War Captives".' [JD 2/11/2005] Research publication - Reproduced as the cover image of Africans On Stage, ed. Bernth Lindfors (Bloomington 1999). Illustrated as figure 184 on page 180 of Elizabeth Edwards's essay 'Evolving Images: Photography, Race and Popular Darwinism', In Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts, edited by Diana Donald and Jane Munro (Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum / New Haven: Yale Center for British art, in association with Yale University Press, 2009). Also listed on page 324 of the 'Checklist of Exhibits' as catalogue number 101. [CM 27/11/2009]

Search terms: Exhibition, Theatre and Drama, Studio, Portrait

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