Our Nation’s Hidden History Essay and Review on Human Zoos

By: Ayana Coleman-Dixon

Imagine, it’s the early 1900s, you and your family are looking for something entertaining and fun to do on a Saturday afternoon in New York City. Well, what if I told you during this time looking at foreigners from different areas of the world had become very popular in westernized society as a form of entertainment? Would you believe that some of your favorite current museums and zoos were the exact places they showcased these foreigners to New Yorkers at the time? These are what we now refer to as human zoos. But how do these human zoos affect the historical knowledge that we consider to be of quality and accuracy? And why has it taken our country over 100 years to finally question and become more informed about our hidden histories? Buckle your seatbelts, because the history you once thought you knew is a lot more shocking and exploitative than you probably imagined. 

The American Museum of Natural History was started by Albert Smith Bickmore in 1869 and was assisted by Swiss-American zoologist Louis Agassiz. Agassiz is the author of Nomenclator Zoologicus (1939), which was said to be one of Adolf Hitler’s favorite reads and inspired his own beliefs of Jewish people being inferior. From googling the summary of the book and knowing that fact, it was very obvious that the zoologist had different opinions; specifically about race. The theory Agassiz supported was inspired by Samuel George Morton and his collection of varying races of the human cranial. Though not true, he believed that Europeans were smarter than all other races and placed Africans at the bottom of intelligence. Morton was an American anthropologist and another contributor to the museum's upbringing as well. These men were the main contributors and creators of the museum we know today, so what led to the museum’s connection with human zoos? 

In the late 1800s, France grew interested in recreating indigenous lands for the public to view and consume. The idea was to feel as though you’ve traveled around the world but in your own backyard. They felt it made things easier for the French to witness invigorating new lands and view indigenous people from a distance without having to leave their country. The indigenous people were taken and their homes were destroyed by colonizers. The countries most affected were the likes of the Congo, Indochine, Madagascar, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia. Most of the people that were sent to France fell ill since they were not equipped with the proper material for the ever-changing weather or differing air quality; this, in turn, caused massive deaths. However, this did not stop Americans from feeling inspired by this new craze and in 1904 the St. Louis World’s Fair opened for business. The fair took specifically Congolese, Native American, and Phillipino people and did a similar concept that the French did when it came to display. From the St.Louis World Fair, one of their star captures was a Congolese boy named Ota Benga. Benga was so popular he made the transition to the American Museum of Natural History at the request of S.P. Verner. 

Initially, Benga thought he would take the role of a caretaker of the elephants at the New York Zoological Park (Bronx Zoo). They eventually moved him from the museum into the Bronx Zoo’s chimp exhibition because of an incident involving one of the museum’s wealthy donors that deemed Benga a dangerous individual. The zoo set the chimpanzee cages with a hammock and bones in the exhibit for Ota to stay in with the monkeys. This led to a lot of controversies due to many Black organizers and people protesting this treatment. So eventually Ota Benga was later removed from the zoo. He was then transferred to an orphan asylum in Lynchburg, Virginia due to him still being a child who had no home to go to. Benga had tried going back to his homeland when he was set free, but everything he knew had vanished from his homeland. This as a result left him feeling suicidal and on March 22, 1916, he fatally shot himself. 

So, why bring this up now? It’s been more than 115 years since the incident and these institutions and the people supporting them certainly don’t feel this way now. But given the major shift of events that we are facing today as a society when it comes to racial history, the Bronx Zoo has officially put out an acknowledgment and apology about this hidden history. Their statement reads:

 “Specifically, we denounce the eugenics-based, pseudo-scientific racism, writings, and philosophies advanced by many people during that era, including two of our founders Madison Grant and Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. Excerpts from Grant’s book The Passing of the Great Race.” Were included in a defense exhibit for one of the defendants in the Nuremberg trials. Grant and Osborn were likewise among the founders of the American Eugenics Society in 1926.”

The article is not very specific on who they are referring to when it comes to the scientific theories they believed and practiced, but it’s a major step in the right direction. As Klinghoffer mentioned in the article that contradicted the zoo’s statement; racism wasn’t eugenics-based, it was evolution-based. I’ve tried for a consecutive three weeks to try to get an interview with a press representative at the Bronx Zoo and The American Museum of Natural History on this topic but had no luck. The solution however is simple, we’re asking for a call of action to not only question the history being shown to us but also question the hidden histories we know nothing about. With the increased coverage of police brutality, President Trump's attempts to eliminate diversity training for schools, and tensions rising between many races, what are we willing to teach our children about our past histories?