Hagenbeck's Artic Panorama

1930

A fabulous book, recommended for anyone interested in zoo history is the book titled, CARL HAGENBECK'S EMPIRE OF ENTERTAINMENTS authored by Eric Ames, Seattle: University of Washington Press 2008

What makes it such a great read is that it is the first full length account of Hagenbeck in English, instead of having to take Marco Kirstens word for what it say. LOL

Excerpt's from the Arctic Book Review by Russel A. Potter:

When the name of Carl Hagenbeck comes up these days, it's most often in reference to his innovations in the design of zoos -- and justly so, as he was certainly the first to place animals in realistic-seeming environments. His other accomplishments, however, were far more varied -- and in certain aspects troubling -- than that. He was an early, and persistent exhibitor of humans from exotic lands; his built environments were modelled not on the actual places the animals lived, but on massive panoramas and cycloramas in which a daub of paint was as good as an iceberg; he was a pioneering maker of wildlife films, but the animals in them were most often shot and killed on camera; and perhaps most significantly, he is the only one of many such exhibitors from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries whose establishment -- the Hamburg Tierpark-- still stands.

Eric Ames' remarkable new study is the first full-length account of Hagenbeck's career in English. It's also the first study in any language to consider his life's work in the context of our modern understandings of zoology, anthropology, and visual culture. It's lucidly written, in a manner that will delight both the specialist and the casual reader, and it's amply illustrated and beautifully designed. It also reveals some very troubling chapters in the history of zoos and exhibitions, including unexpected connections -- between zoos, panoramas, and early film -- and uncomfortable juxtapositions, such as Hagenbeck's placing human and animal exhibits side-by-side, or his "safari" films. And yet we must not be too quick to condemn such entertainments, for as Ames makes increasingly clear as the book progresses, this is also our history -- the history of our curiosity, our demand to see the wonders of the natural world, and of our own long-held yet half-articulated assumptions about the function of cultural spectatorship.

Ames begins by laying out the territory, carefully articulating the history of 'themed spaces,' and of their rise in the age of industrial expansion and world population growth. His account is clear and fluid, drawing effectively on Foucault and Baudrillard without ever, even for a moment, descending into theoretical gobbledegook. He makes fascinating connections and contrasts between the cultural "museum" -- at which, by its very nature, the actual living subjects of its displays are absent -- and the ethnographical show, in which the presence of those very subjects -- however we may regard the ethics of such displays today -- guaranteed their authenticity. Hagenbeck's genius, as Ames describes it, was in realizing that the authenticity of his themed spaces depended on the seamless linkage between the scenic evocation of place and the presence of its animal and human "inhabitants."

The centerpiece of this progression lies in the history of Hagenbeck's "Eismeer" or 'Sea of Ice' panorama. Originally, much like the managers of other travelling menageries, Hagenbeck made do with simple flat painted backdrops to add whatever scenic elements might emphasize an animal's exotic origins. These were as generic as in any circus or carnival, and as a result added little to the perception of authenticity. Hagenbeck made his first innovation by employing moving panoramas, which added a narrative element missing in such flat panels, and grouping animals together by their region of origin. But with the enormous living panorama he designed for his Tierpark, he outdid himself and by old craft created new art -- new enough that, like Robert Barker's original panorama design in 1796, Hagenbeck had it patented.

"To borrow a quote from the old beer commercial, "the beer that made Milwaukee famous," The Arctic Panorama is the "exhibit that made Carl Hagenbeck famous." Many artistic features of the Arctic Panorama are still used today, like the icicles and snow covered rocks which Detroit zoo features in their polar bear exhibit. On a hot sweltering summer day I think it stretches the boundaries of realism, but it was quite impressive, back in the day."

1911

Translate this page The New Hagenbeck Arctic Panorama. This should be an exciting new exhibit combining old with new technologies.


"Above is a copy of Hagenbeck's famous patent. He has often been given credit for designing the first moated exhibit, as well as the first to use artificial rock work as part of the exhibit design. That's a misconception as it is the "Panorama" type exhibit with different species of animal "apparently" living together, separated by skillfully hidden moats and barriers. Similarly, Darix Togni has been given credit for designing and patenting the "first" pull up arena, when we have found photo's of earlier pull up arena's built with a different material, so if in fact Darix did patent something it was for a chain link pull up arena, not the actual concept of a pull up arena. It seem's like it was a waste of time for Darix, as nobody that I am aware of ever built another chain link pull up arena, as they were very cumbersome, heavy, and visually unattractive. "

[ Translate this page ] GB Hagenbeck/Zooquarium Consulting

This is a great site above, with great Hagenbeck insights on animal exhibits.

Excellent point of view below, from Russel A Potter on the Hagenbeck Human Zoo's:

The arrangements necessary to secure both animals and humans for display are also detailed by Ames, and here the story is a far grimmer one. Like many other zoo and circus managers, Hagenbeck relied upon a number of agents and intermediaries to secure living creatures for his exhibits, keeping his own hands clean, metaphorically speaking. And yet of course it was the knowledge that Hagenbeck would pay handsomely that created this secondary market. In Labrador, there was a roaring trade in Inuit, with several different entities competing for this human market. The pressure on the indigenous population was so great that, early in 1911, the legislature of Newfoundland and Labrador explicitly banned the taking of Inuit for human exhibition. The ban did not, however, much deter Hagenbeck, who found other means to secure "Eskimo" performers. In November of 1911, he hired the troupe led by John C. Smith and Esther Enutseak for his "Nordland" exhibition, happily taking on a group with nearly twenty years experience on the "show" circuit, many of whose younger members had been born on the road and had been no closer to the North Pole than London.