Edwardian Britain's Forest Pygmies
Jeffrey Green describes the impact of a troupe of six 'dwarf savages' and what it reveals about social and racial attitudes of the time.
On June 10th, 1905, The Era reported a new act at the London Hippodrome:
The curtain rose upon a scene which represented a tropical forest, in the midst of which is an opening, containing four wigwams of small dimensions. Outside were the group of little people who will for some time be objects of curiosity to amusement-seeking Londoners ... the scene represented a fairly exact picture of the pigmies' homes in the Ituri Forest of Central Africa.
The six pygmies drew 'big business' to the Hippodrome for fourteen weeks and then toured provincial cities until Christmas. About a million people saw them before they left for the rain forests of the Congo in November 1907.
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