1/
These A4/ cutouts arrived in the post today. They are from the book 'Customs of the World' by Walter Hutchinson (1908).

The first image of the man with the afro and two combs really caught my eye. The image was taken by Carl Hagenbeck in Stellingen, Hamburg. #vintagesomalia

2/ With some more digging, I find out Carl Hagenback was the father of Human Zoos.

For those who are not familiar with human zoos, these were exhibitions of black and indigenous people who were caged and displayed in a 'makeshift natural habitat'.

3/ Hagenback was a trader who travelled the world collecting exotic animals. As that wasn't exciting enough for him, he would travel far away lands collecting 'exotic' humans.

He had his own zoo called Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg, same location as the above image.

4/ After setting up his zoo, Hagenbeck expanded it to contain humans. He had people of various origins: Inuits, nubians, East Indians, Somalis, etc.

Hagenbeck also popularised Human zoos by putting on exhibitions all across Europe. http://Bit.ly/38LIRTI 

5/ These ethnological expositions of 'exotic humans' were very popular at the time (late 1800s and early 1900s). Many saw them as 'educational'.

A good example of this is the page below from the same book as the above pictures.

6/ Recieving images taken and printed around the same time as these events is really sobering. A tangible reminder of how not-too-distant these events were. http://Bit.ly/3fk7ycx