Upon researching the presentation of non-medicalised bodily visual difference and physical disability in museums for my MA dissertation, it struck me how much elements of race and gender intertwined with how and why certain human specimens were displayed. Using examples from nineteenth century freak shows, including Sara Baartman (‘The Hottentot Venus’) and Joseph Merrick (‘The Elephant Man’), I have explored the ways that people have looked at them both during freak show performances and post-mortem in museums.
In the case of Sara Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman from South Africa with excess fatty tissue around her thighs and buttocks, her legacy in museums represented the racial pseudo sciences of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As a black woman, her body cast in the Musée de l’Homme was placed positioned in profile so as to emphasise her buttocks and thereby placing a significant portion of her value on the sexualisation of her black body.
However, in the post-mortem representation of Joseph Merrick in museums, the focus has been more on his humanity as opposed to just his physicality and the science behind it. The Royal London Hospital Museum created a walking audio tour that can be found online called I am Human, telling the story of Joseph Merrick’s time in hospital, including events he experienced, how he was treated, and most importantly, what made him human. By talking about visual difference and physical disability in the context of the life of the person experiencing it, museums are able to normalise and reduce the element of taboo that today’s society experiences in talking about and acknowledging people who look different to the ‘norm’.
Ultimately, the importance in this dissertation lies in its aim to identify ways by which people with visible differences can feel understood beyond their difference. Looking further than what makes people different and more to what makes their humanity will be the making of thoughtful and meaningful medical and pathological exhibitions in the future.
Written by Sarah Doherty