In the winter of 1810, a Khoikhoi woman from the Eastern Cape named Saartjie Baartman was exhibited as the Hottentot Venus to a gawping London public. Visitors could watch her move and sing – and suffer their scrutiny – on a platform at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly for the meagre price of two shillings.
The Prince Regent arrived, bringing with him “the principal nobility of all England” according to contemporary handbills, followed by the cartoonists of the day. Their images send up Baartman’s “broad bottom” with ever-increasing glee. One even includes a smirking dandy ostentatiously measuring her anatomy with a pair of callipers. It appears in this riveting exhibition.
