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Baartman, Sarah

LC control no.nb 99143301
Descriptive conventionsrda
Personal name headingBaartman, Sarah
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Variant(s)Baartman, Saartjie
Hottentot Venus
Vénus Hottentote
Bartman, Sarah
Baartman, Sara
Associated placeEngland France
Birth date1788~
Death date1815-12-29
Place of birthSouth Africa
Place of deathParis (France)
Found inL'énigme de la Vénus Hottentote, 2000: back cover (Sarah Baartman) p. 20 (b. 1789) p. 179 (d. Dec. 29, 1815)
Std. ency. of southern Africa, 1972 (Hottentot Venus; a Bushwoman named Saartjie Baartman who was exhibited at London and Paris)
The return of Sarah Bartman, 2003: container (Sara Baartman)
Oxford Companion to Black British History, accessed December 8, 2014, via Oxford African American Studies Center database: (Baartman, Sarah; Sara Baartman; Saartjie Baartman; or Bartman; celebrity; born c.1788 in near Cape Town, South Africa; a member of the Khoisan people of southern Africa, exhibited as a 'freak' in 19th century Britain; she was brought to Britain in 1810 and shown for her prominent buttocks and labia; a case was brought before the Court of King's Bench so that she could return to South Africa, she declared she was employed by Cezar of her own free will and that she was guaranteed half of the profits and the case was dismissed; continued to exhibit herself in London and elsewhere in Britain; was baptized in Manchester (1811); also attracted enormous popular and scientific curiosity in Paris (1814-1815); after her death she was dissected by Georges Cuvier; a plaster cast was made of her body, and a wax cast of her genitals; her skeleton was preserved and displayed together with the plaster cast until 1980s at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, which also kept her brain and her genitals; after a prolonged campaign by the South African government and others, her remains were finally returned to South Africa (2002) and she was given an official funeral at Hankey in the Eastern Cape; died 29 December 1815 in Paris, France)