There is excitement each time an email is received from a bookdealer with the latest acquisitions. From Douglas Stewart Fine Books , Melbourne , came the above 1884 cabinet photograph of seven North Queensland Aborigines at the Crystal Palace, London, part of the R. A. Cunningham international touring company .
Information supplied says Cunningham, a Canadian , acting as agent for the American P. T. Barnum and Bailey Circus, came to Australia in l882 and "enticed " nine North Queensland Aborigines to travel to North America as part of a troupe Barnum had formed.
They were displayed as " ethnological curiosities" , coerced into performing acts such as boomerang throwing on stage .
Apparently Cunningham " assumed control "of the group , reduced to seven , by deaths , who took them to Europe , where they appeared at the Crystal Palace, photographed by Negretti and Zambra.
Those in the photo were , from the left to right- Billy (holding a rainforest shield) . Jenny, Toby (Jenny's son ) ,Toby (Jenny's husband holding a boomerang and " sword club " ) ,Sussy, Jimmy ( holding two boomerangs ), and Bob (reclining at front , holding a fighting club ).
The group had been reduced to four a year later , only Jenny, young Toby and Billy eventually returned to Australia .
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See reference Roslyn Poignant. Professional Savages : Captive Lives and Western Spectacle. Sydney : University of New South Wales Press, 2004.
