Abstract
Exotic animals were part of the fabric of nineteenth-century society. They were far more prevalent and much more accessible than we might imagine. Most British people probably would have seen an elephant at least once in their lives. Some would have done so without even leaving their native towns and villages. Exotic beasts were not just cultural referents for nineteenth-century Britons; they also had a strong physical presence.
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Notes
Randy Malamud, for instance, dismisses zoos as ‘prisons for animals and quick, convenient, sometimes titillating, but ultimately distorting experiences for people’. See Randy Malamud, Reading Zoos: Representations of Animals and Captivity (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998). On more complex nineteenth-century responses to animal cruelty, specifically hunting, see Nigel Rothfels, ‘Killing Elephants: Pathos and Prestige in the Nineteenth Century’ in Denenholz Morse and Danahay, Victorian Animal Dreams, pp.53–63.
Andrew Thompson, The Empire Strikes Back: The Impact of Imperialism on Britain from the Mid-Nineteenth Century (London: Longman, 2005), especially ‘The Working Class at Play’, pp.83–95.
Frank Buckland, Notes and Jottings from Animal Life (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1886), pp.237–242; Daily News, 3 August 1875.
David Barnaby, The Elephant who Walked to Manchester (Plymouth: Basset Publications, 1988).
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© 2014 Helen Cowie
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Cowie, H. (2014). Conclusion. In: Exhibiting Animals in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384447_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384447_10
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