Displaying Sara Baartman, the ‘hottentot venus’

History of Science

Volumn 42, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 233-257

  Qureshi, Sadiah ^a  

^a CHRIST S COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 2542625147     PISSN: 00732753     EISSN: 17538564     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/007327530404200204     Document Type: Article

References (136)

1. Lysons Daniel, Collectanea; or a collection of advertisements and paragraphs from the newspapers relating to various subjects (2 vols, unpublished scrapbook in the British Library, London).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. McGreal Chris, “Coming home”, Guardian, 21 June 2002, 6–7.
3. Koch Eddie, “Bring back the Hottentot Venus”, Weekly Mail and Guardian, 15–22 June 1995, 13.
4. Lysons, Weekly Mail and Guardian (ref. 1);
5. the official court records as reprinted in Strother Zoë S., “Display of the body Hottentot”, in Lindfors Bernth (ed.), Africans on stage: Studies in ethnological show business (Bloomington, IL, 1999), 1–61;
6. Altick Richard, The shows of London (Cambridge, MA, 1978);
7. Kirby Percival, “The Hottentot Venus”, Africana notes and news, v (1949), 55–62
8. “More about the Hottentot Venus”, Africana notes and news, x (1953), 124–34, and
9. “The ‘Hottentot Venus’ of the Musée de l'Homme, Paris”, South African journal of science, x (1954), 319–22.
10. See Altick, South African journal of science (ref. 5);
11. Gilman Sander, “Black bodies, white bodies: Toward an iconography of female sexuality in late nineteenth-century art, medicine, and literature”, in Gates Henry Louis Jr (ed.), “Race”, writing, and difference (Chicago, 1985), 223–61, and
12. Difference and pathology: Stereotypes of sexuality, race and madness (Ithaca, NY, 1985);
13. Fausto-Sterling Anne, “Gender, race, and nation: The comparative anatomy of ‘Hottentot’ women in Europe, 1815–1817”, in Terry Jennifer, Urla Jacqueline (eds), Deviant bodies: Critical perspectives on difference in science and popular culture (Bloomington, IL, 1995), 19–48;
14. Schiebinger Londa, Nature's body: Gender in the making of modern science (Boston, MA, 1993);
15. Lindfors Bernth, “The Hottentot Venus and other African attractions in nineteenth-century England”, Australasian drama studies, i (1983), 83–104
16. “The bottom line: African caricature in Georgian England”, World literature written in English, xxiv (1984), 43–51, and
17. “Ethnological show business: Footlighting the dark continent”, in Thomson Rosemarie G. (ed.), Freakery: Cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body (New York, 1996), 207–18;
18. Abrahams Yvette, “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
19. “Images of Sara Bartman: Sexuality, race, and gender in early-nineteenth-century Britain”, in Pierson Ruth R., Chaudry Nupur (eds), Nation, empire, colony: Historicizing gender and race (Bloomington, IL, 1998), 220–36;
20. Magubane Zine, “Which bodies matter? Feminism, poststructuralism, race, and the curious theoretical odyssey of the ‘Hottentot Venus’”, Gender and society, xv (2001), 816–34;
21. and Badou Gérard, L'énigme de la Vénus Hottentote ([Paris], 2000).
22. See also Gould Stephen Jay, “The Hottentot Venus”, in The flamingo's smile (New York, 1985), 291–305.
23. For changing representations of the Khoikhoi see Strother, The flamingo's smile (ref. 5);
24. Schiebinger, The flamingo's smile. (ref. 6); and Pratt Mary L., Imperial eyes (London, 1992).
25. For the imperial importance of botany see Drayton Richard, Nature's government: Science, imperial Britain and the improvement of the world (New Haven, 2000);
26. Miller David P., Reill Peter H. (eds). Visions of empire: Voyages, botany, and representations of nature (Cambridge, 1996);
27. and Grove Richard H., Green imperialism: Colonial expansion, tropical edens, and the origins of environmentalism, 1600–1860 (Cambridge, 1995).
28. For zoos and menageries see Hoage Robert J., Deiss William A. (eds), New worlds, new animals (London, 1996);
29. Ritvo Harriet, The animal estate: The English and other creatures in the Victorian age (London, 1987);
30. and Baratay Eric, Hardoiun-Fugier Elisabeth, Zoo: A history of zoological gardens in the West (London, 2002).
31. For more on natural history see Jardine Nicholas, Secord James A., Spary Emma C., The cultures of natural history (Cambridge, 1995).
32. Sivasundaram Sujit, “Natural history spiritualized: Civilising islanders, cultivating breadfruit, and collecting souls”, History of science, xxxix (2001), 417–43.
33. For an alternative perspective on Khoikhoi enslavement see Abrahams Yvette, “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.
34. Strother, History of science (ref. 5), 48, note 2.
35. Nothing more is known about Cezar. Kirby Percival, History of science (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).
36. The classic work on London's entertainment scene during the period is Altick, History of science (ref. 5). However, readers may also find Lysons, History of science (ref. 1);
37. Lindfors, Africans on stage (ref. 5); and
38. Frost Thomas, The old showmen and the old London fairs (London, 1874) and
39. 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.
40. Court Records, as reprinted in Strother, Circus life and circus celebrities (ref. 5) 43.
41. Chambers Robert (ed.), The book of days: A miscellany of popular antiquities, in connection with the calendar (2 vols, London and Edinburgh, 1863), ii, 621.
42. Matthews Mrs, Memoirs of Charles Matthews, comedian (4 vols, London, 1839), iv, 133.
43. For more on the late nineteenth century see Rydell Robert W., All the world's a fair: Visions of empire at American international expositions, 1876–1916 (Chicago, 1984), and
44. Greenhalgh Paul, Emphemeral vistas: The expositions universelles, great exhibitions and world's fairs, 1851–1939 (Manchester, 1988).
45. Matthews, Emphemeral vistas: The expositions universelles, great exhibitions and world's fairs, 1851–1939 (ref. 17), iv, 137.
46. For more on Crackham see Wood Gaby, The smallest of all persons mentioned in the records of littleness (London, 1998).
47. Cited in Hayward Arthur L., The days of Dickens: A glance at some aspects of early Victorian London (London, 1926), 57.
48. See Ritvo, The days of Dickens: A glance at some aspects of early Victorian London (ref. 9), and Hoage, Deiss (eds), The days of Dickens: A glance at some aspects of early Victorian London (ref. 9).
49. 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, The days of Dickens: A glance at some aspects of early Victorian London (ref. 5);
50. Lindfors, Africans on stage (ref. 5); and Lysons, The days of Dickens: A glance at some aspects of early Victorian London (ref. 1). See also “Human Freaks 4”. available at the John Johnson Collection of Ephemera, the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
51. This account is based upon the court records, as reprinted in Strother, The days of Dickens: A glance at some aspects of early Victorian London (ref. 5), and the following newspaper articles: “An Englishman”, letter to the editor. Morning Chronicle, 12 October 1810, 3;
52. Cezar Hendrick, “The Hottentot Venus”, letter to the editor, Morning Chronicle, 13 October 1810, 3;
53. Humanitas, “Female Hottentot”, letter to the editor, Morning Chronicle, 17 October 1810, 3; A Man and a Christian, letter, Morning Post, 18 October 1810;
54. Cezar Hendrick, letter to the editor, Morning Chronicle, 23 October 1810, 4;
55. Humanitas, “Female Hottentot”, Morning Chronicle, 24 October 1810, 3;
56. Man White, 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.
57. Morning Chronicle, 12 Oct. 1810 (ref. 23).
58. Morning Chronicle, 23 Oct. 1810 (ref. 23).
59. Unless otherwise stated, this history of black presence is based upon Edwards Paul, Walvin James, Black personalities in the era of the slave trade (Baton Rouge, 1983);
60. McCalman Iain, Radical underworld: Prophets, revolutionaries, and pornographers in London, 1795–1840 (Cambridge, 1988);
61. Gerzina Gretchen H., Black England: Life before emancipation (London, 1995);
62. and Fryer Peter, Staying power: The history of black people in Britain (London, 1984).
63. For more on abolition, see Eltis David, Walvin James (eds), The abolition of the Atlantic slave trade: Origins and effects in Europe, Africa, and the Americas (Wisconsin, 1981).
64. Edwards, Walvin, The abolition of the Atlantic slave trade: Origins and effects in Europe, Africa, and the Americas (ref. 27).
65. Altick, The abolition of the Atlantic slave trade: Origins and effects in Europe, Africa, and the Americas (ref. 5) 221.
66. Dabydeen David, Hogarth's blacks: Images of blacks in eighteenth century English art (Manchester, 1987).
67. Cited in Edwards, Walvin, Hogarth's blacks: Images of blacks in eighteenth century English art (ref. 27) 42.
68. For Wedderburn see Wedderburn Robert, The horrors of slavery, and other writings, ed. by McCalman Iain (Edinburgh, 1991), and
69. Iain McCalman, Radical underworld (ref. 27), 50–72.
70. For Equiano see Walvin James, An African's life: The life and times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745–1797 (London, 1998), and
71. Edwards, Walvin, An African's life: The life and times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745–1797 (ref. 27), especially 119–41.
72. Lysons, An African's life: The life and times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745–1797 (ref. 1).
73. For more on slavery see Curtin Philip D., The Atlantic slave trade: A census (Madison, 1969), and
74. Linebaugh Peter, Rediker Marcus, The many headed hydra: Sailors, slaves, commoners, and the hidden history of the revolutionary Atlantic (Boston, 2000).
75. 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.
76. 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.
77. Newspaper clippings in Lysons, Images of Sara Bartman (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.
78. Baartman's appearance in Ireland is recorded in Lenihan Maurice, Limerick, its histories and antiquities, ecclesiastical, civil and military (Dublin, 1866), 416.
79. Saint-Hilaire Étienne Geoffroy, Cuvier Frédéric, 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.
80. Honour Hugh, The image of the black in western art (4 vols, Houston, 1989), iv, 47.
81. Cuvier Georges, “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.
82. For a full account of the correspondence, including a reprint of the original letter, see Badou, Mémoires du Musée Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle (ref. 6), 149–56.
83. Cuvier Georges, Mémoires du Musée Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle (ref. 39). A shorter version of the paper accompanies the drawings of Baartman as “Femme de race Boschimanne” in Saint-Hilaire, Cuvier, Mémoires du Musée Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle (ref. 37), i, 1–4.
84. For the most detailed discussion of Cuvier's paper and its political significance, see Fausto-Sterling, Mémoires du Musée Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle (ref. 6).
85. See Cowling Mary, The artist as anthropologist: The representation of type and character in Victorian art (Cambridge, 1989), and
86. Hartley Lucy, Physiognomy and the meaning of expression in nineteenth-century culture (Cambridge, 2001).
87. For more on Cuvier see Outram Darinda, Georges Cuvier: Vocation, science and authority in post-revolutionary France (Manchester, 1984).
88. For more on the Jardin des Plantes see Spary Emma C., Utopia's garden: French natural history from old regime to revolution (London, 2000).
89. Guenther Mathias Georg, “From ‘brutal savages’ to ‘harmless people’: Notes on the changing Western image of the Bushmen”, Paideuma, xxvi (1980), 123–40.
90. Cuvier's views on transmutation were subject to change, but by 1812 he was arguing against great leaps in nature. See Outram, Paideuma (ref. 43), 118–28.
91. Quotation in Strother, Paideuma (ref. 5) 20.
92. Fausto-Sterling, Paideuma (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, Paideuma (ref. 39)
93. see (in chronological order): de Blainville Henri, “Sur une femme de la race Hottentote”, Bulletin du Société Philomatique de Paris, 1816, 183–90;
94. Müller Johannes, “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);
95. 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;
96. Marshall John, “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;
97. Flower W. H., Murie James, “Account of the dissection of a Bushwoman”, Journal of anatomy and physiology, i (1867), 189–208;
98. Spitzka Edward 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.
99. For a detailed and helpful overview of this research in relation to the debates on Khoisan genitalia originally found in travel literature, see Baker John R., Race (London, 1974), 313–24.
100. Marshall, “On the brain of a Bushwoman” (ref. 47), 514, added emphasis.
101. Prichard James 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.
102. 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).
103. Fausto-Sterling, The natural history of Man; comprising inquiries into the modifying influence of physical and moral agencies on the different tribes of the human family (ref. 6), 23, added emphasis.
104. Somerville William. “On the structure of Hottentot women”, in Edna, Brownlow Frank (eds), William Somerville's narrative of his journeys to the Eastern Cape frontier and to Lake Lattakoe, 1799–1802 (Cape Town, 1979), 236–41.
105. 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.
106. 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.
107. Anon., “Anatomical description of the organs of generation in a Hottentot female”, The lancet, xix (1832), 147–9.
108. Badou, The lancet (ref. 6), 157–8.
109. “Choses rare ou choses belles ici savamment assemblées instruisent l'oeil à regarder comme jamais encore vues toutes choses qui sont au monde.”.
110. The museological discussion presented here is based upon Kirshenblatt-Gimblett Barbara, “Objects of ethnography”, in Karp Ivan, Lavine Steven D. (eds). Exhibiting cultures: The poetics and the politics of museum display (London, 1991), 386–443;
111. Ettema Michael J., “History museums and the culture of materialism”, in Blatti Jo (ed.), Past meets present: Essays about historic interpretation and public audiences (London, 1987), 62–93: And
112. Vergo Peter (ed.), The new museology (London, 1989).
113. However, readers will find a photograph in Kunapipi, 2/1 (1980), 29.
114. For a discussion of anthropological photography see Edwards Elizabeth, Raw histories: Photographs, anthropology, and museums (Oxford, 2001).
115. See Badou, Raw histories: Photographs, anthropology, and museums (ref. 6), 185–92.
116. Webster Paul, “France keeps a hold on black Venus”, Guardian, 1 April 2000.
117. 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.
118. Evans David et al. (eds), Herschel at the Cape: Diaries and correspondence of Sir John Herschel, 1834–1838 (Austin. TX, 1969), 42.
119. Galton Francis, Narrative of an explorer in tropical South Africa: Being an account of a visit to Damaraland in 1851, 4th edn (London, 1891), 54.
120. Davison Patricia, “Human subjects as museum objects: A project to make life-casts of ‘Bushmen’ and ‘Hottentots’, 1907–1924”, Annals of the South African Museum, 102/5 (1993), 165–83, p. 169.
121. Skotnes Pippa (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.
122. Swarns Rachel 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.
123. The display is made up of body casts taken from live subjects; for a discussion of their manufacture, see Davison, New York Times. (ref. 67).
124. Haraway Donna, “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.
125. Fusco Coco, “The other history of intercultural performance”, in her English is broken here (New York, 1995), 37–63, p. 39.
126. 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.
127. See also Alexander Elizabeth, “The Venus Hottentot”, in her The Venus Hottentot (Charlottesville, 1990), 3–7
128. and Gray Stephen, “Hottentot Venus”, in his Hottentot Venus and other poems (London, 1979), 1–2.
129. 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 Conboy Katie, Medina Nadia, Stanbury Sarah (eds), Writing on the body: Female embodiment and feminist theory (New York, 1997), 113–28.
130. Universal Negro Improvement Association. For the exhibition catalogue see Farr Ragnar (ed.). Mirage: Enigmas of race, difference and desire (London, 1995).
131. Read Alan (ed.), The fact of blackness: Frantz Fanon and visual representation (Seattle, 1996), 150, added emphasis.
132. For Baartman's return, see Daley Suzanne, “Exploited in life and death, South African to go home”, New York Times, 30 January 2002, 4;
133. Hearst David, “African woman going home after 200 years”, Guardian, 30 April 2002; and
134. Zilwa Obed, “Sold as a slave, exhibited as a freak, Sarah finds dignity after 200 years”, Independent, 10 August 2002, 12.
135. Magubane, Independent (ref. 6).
136. Zilwa, Independent (ref. 79).