Human Curiosities: 'The Most Wonderful Phenomomenon of Nature'

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, human exhibits, more commonly known as ‘freak shows’ become a popular form of entertainment in Britain. Organisers relied on the shock value of novelty acts and drummed up publicity by circulating often exaggerated illustrations of human beings. Curiosity propelled people to pay for a glimpse of men, women and children who were presented as 'abnormal'. Popular exhibits included ‘dwarfs, giants, the bearded lady and conjoined twins.’ On occasion, Black men and women were part of these human curiosities and were presented to locals in Hull and East Yorkshire. 

In December 1811, the first known human exhibit to have been brought to this region, the Hottentot Venus (probably the famous Sarah Baartman) was displayed at Sam’s Coffee-House in Hull. She was advertised as a ‘wonderful living production of nature’ and ‘a perfect specimen of that most extraordinary tribe of the human race, who for such a length of time have inhabited the most southern parts of Africa.’ An article in the Hull Packet on 10 December, informed readers of her arrival from London and outlined the prominent members of society, including His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, who had flocked to see her. Since it was claimed that Venus was the only Hottentot to have visited Europe, readers were, rather crudely, advised that they would have to pay one-shilling entry fee to see her 'large bottom'. They could also purchase 'elegant engravings' of her at the rooms.

Another particularly gruesome human exhibit arrived in Hull in 1845. On 1 August, the Hull Packet advertised that ‘a Negro man preserved by Guano’ was on display at the Victoria Saloon Rooms on Humber Street. It detailed that he had been disinterred three months earlier and brought to the region from Possession Island, Namibia. The African man was described as being ‘in an entire state of preservation’ despite being buried for almost a century. Once again locals were invited to see the mummified remains at the cost of 1 shilling per person.

The popularity of human exhibitions extended locally into the early twentieth century with the arrival of the Brandsburton Pygmies in 1905. (Read about the Brandesburton Pygmies here).