Zoo; noun: an establishment that maintains a collection of wild animals, typically in a park or gardens, for study, conservation, or display to the public.
Zoos are not a foreign idea. Back in 2400 B.C, Shulgi, the ruler of Ur (which is now known as South-East Iraq), had a collection of animals. Although it was not a public zoo, it set the standard for years to come. The first zoos were created as private collections known as menageries, by the wealthy to demonstrate their power.
The earliest known public zoo was established in 1500 B.C in Egypt by Queen Hatshepsut, as she collected animals for display from all over Africa.
Public or private, these zoos had the same general idea. Animals on display. But what makes animals any different from people? Yes, people. People love to flaunt their differences; display what makes them special or sets them apart from other people. Why not have a zoo showcasing as many different varieties of the human species as possible? Sounds like something right out of an episode of the Twilight Zone, right?
Moctezuma, the 9th Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan and ruler of the Aztec Triple Alliance, had one of the earliest known zoos, that consisted not only of a vast collection of animals, but also exhibited humans including dwarves, albinos, and hunchbacks.
Hippolytus Medici, during the 16th century Renaissance, developed a large menagerie in the Vatican. It consisted of a collection of people of different races as well as exotic animals. He was especially proud of his troupe of “savages;” speaking over twenty languages. In addition to these so-called savages, he had Moors, Tartars, Indians, Turks, and Africans.
Even Christopher Columbus brought indigenous Americans from his voyages in the New World, back to the Spanish Court in 1493.
It wasn’t until February 25, 1835 that a public human exhibition was seen by the masses. P.T. Barnum exhibited Joice Heth. Heth was put on display with the claim that she was the 161 year old nursing “mammy” of George Washington. This claim was later disproven, but that didn’t stop the masses from gathering to see her. Before long, P.T. Barnum had others to display, including the Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, creating the more commonly known “freak show.”
By the 1870’s, exhibitions of exotic people became increasingly popular. Human zoos could be found all over the world, including Antwerp, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Milan, New York City, and Paris.
In the mid to late 1870’s, a merchant and entrepreneur by the name of Carl Hagenbeck, decided he wanted to exhibit Samoan and Sami people. He had a “Nubian” exhibit that was very popular in Europe and it toured Paris, London, and even Berlin. He sent agents to acquire him other specimens, including Esquimaux (Eskimo/Inuit), Egyptian, and Bedouin. His goal? Expose his audience to various different subsistence models and lifestyles.
Perhaps one of the largest displays would be the World’s Fairs. Both the 1878 and 1889 Parisian presented a Negro Village, which was visited by 28 million people. The 1889 World’s Fair displayed 400 indigenous people as a main attraction. The 1907 and 1931 World’s Fair displayed humans in cages, often nude or semi-nude, with the 1931 exhibition in Paris so successful that 34 million people attended it within 6 months time.
Hoping to increase the number of visitors, the Cincinnati Zoo, in Cincinnati, Ohio, invited one hundred Sioux Native Americans to establish a village at the site. They lived at the zoo for three months in 1896.
The Bronx Zoo, in New York City, put Congolese pygmy, Ota Benga, on display in 1906. He lived among the apes and other animals. He was labeled “The Missing Link” suggesting that in evolutionary terms, Africans like Benga were closer to apes, than Europeans were. Although some protested, the public flocked to see him.
Benga had a bow and arrow and entertained by shooting targets. He wove twine and even wrestled with an orangutan. According to The New York Times, “few expressed audible objection to the sight of a human being in a cage with monkeys as companions,”
Despite the lack of outrage at fellow human beings being caged, black clergymen in the city took offense and spoke out. “Our race, we think, is depressed enough, without exhibiting one of us with the apes,” said the Reverend James H. Gordon, superintendent of the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn. “We think we are worthy of being considered human beings, with souls.”
The mayor of New York City, George B. McClellan Jr. refused to meet with the clergymen. William Hornaday, director of the Bronx Zoo, wrote to him stating, “When the history of the Zoological Park is written, this incident will form its most amusing passage.” Hornaday insisted that his only intention was to put on an ethnological exhibition, and even said that he and Madison Grant, head of the New York Zoological Society, considered it “imperative that the society should not even seem to be dictated to,” by the black clergymen.
After just 2 days, Hornaday closed the exhibition, and Ota Benga could be seen walking the zoo grounds, followed by a crowd howling, jeering, and yelling.
Human zoos continued in 1925 in Manchester, England at the Belle Vue Zoo, featuring black Africans depicted as savages – the exhibit entitled “Cannibals.” In America, a new form a human zoo erupted, such as the Zoro Garden Nudist Colony in San Diego, California, and the Sally Rand Nude Ranch in San Francisco.While America, and England were open to and eager to accept the human zoo, Nazi Germany felt differently, and under the order of Adolf Hitler, human zoos were systematically banned.
Today, you would be hard pressed to find a human zoo, outside of a carnival-style freak show. They just don’t exist, or are kept so far underground, that the average person wouldn’t know where to look. But are human zoos really a thing of the past? Perhaps not entirely.
PBS’s Nova conducted an interview with android, Phillip K. Dick, and asked him a question. “Do you believe robots will take over the world?”
The android, Phillip Dick responded, “Jeez, dude. You all have the big questions cooking today. But you’re my friend and I’ll remember my friends, and I’ll be good to you. So don’t worry, even if I evolve into Terminator, I’ll still be nice to you. I’ll keep you warm and safe in my people zoo, where I can watch you for ol’ times sake.”
Some might consider this to be a conspiracy theory, just as they consider the possibilities of Roanoke to be conspiracies.
