Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

In 1873, the explorer Emil Holub made the first exploratory expedition to the interior of Africa along the Vaal River basin. During his journey, he collected over twenty boxes of ethnographic and natural history material. He sent them to his Prague supporter, Vojta Náprstek, and together they decided to organize an exhibition. Holub was not directly involved in its preparation and installation, as he remained in Africa. Due to the difficulty of organizing the show, Náprstek was joined by a number of collaborators: entomologist Otakar Nickerl, curator of the Náprstek Museum Alois Studnička, Holub’s then partner Berta Nováková, members of the American Ladies Club, and several other friends.

The title African Exhibition was somewhat misleading since the exhibition included only exhibits from southern Africa,where Holub was staying. However, due to their number, which amounted to over 500 objects, it became the first comprehensive presentation of southern African culture, flora, and fauna on Czech territory, or even in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire. For these reasons, it attracted the attention of both the professional and lay public. Although it was open for only one week, it received almost 6,000 visitors, mainly from Czech towns and cities. The proceeds from the admission fees were donated to a fund financing the Czech-American girls’ orphanage.

The main hall of the exhibition contained a collection of nearly two hundred ethnographic objects from the territory through which Holub had travelled. These were the products of the Tswana, Sotho, and Tlhaping peoples, as well as the Boers – descendants of European immigrants whom Holub met in the Transvaal. The collection included a wide range of items: vessels, bowls, spoons, tobacco pouches, pipes, hats, sandals, leather coats of local chiefs, bags, sticks, clubs, whips, and musical instruments.

Living and non-living natural objects formed a significant part of the exhibition, most of them animals that Holub hunted and killed to bring back to Europe. There were almost fifty antelope and wildebeest horns, along with several skulls. This collection also included three rhinoceros horns, skins of lions, leopards, and other mammals, forty birds, two dozen amphibians, and several fish. Náprstek placed the exhibits on the wall and in cabinets and display cases that contained mainly minerals and corals. Plants and tropical aquatic fungi were presented in glass bottles. A dozen representations of African vertebrates complemented the nature section.

The museum’s library provided publications for the exhibition, such as Henry Morton Stanley’s famous travelogue How I Found Livingstone. As both Náprstek and Holub placed great emphasis on education, they also included other materials to help visitors understand the broader context of the objects on display. In addition to cabinet cards, maps, drawings, and African journals in English and Dutch, the most popular exhibits were the fifty stereoscopic photographs that visitors viewed through three stereoscopes.

Both the Czech and German press praised the exhibition, highlighting the wide range of exhibits and the tasteful installation. The reviewers saw the exhibition primarily as educational. Most of them chose not to voice a critical opinion and remained more or less neutral in their descriptions. The reviewer for Pokrok demonstrated what was a traditional view of African culture, noting that the tastes of the local inhabitants contradicted the European concept of beauty, but he was still able to appreciate the aesthetic aspect of some objects (especially the cloaks of local chiefs). [Anonymous author 1874a].

Among the many reviews that appeared in the press, one deserves special mention. Although isolated, it is quite characteristic of the period, as many nationalistic Czechs could easily identify with it. Its anonymous author, a reviewer for Posel z Prahy, wrote about the exhibition’s invaluable ethical significance for the self-esteem of the Czech nation. In the context of an ongoing imaginary competition with the Germans, he saw Holub as a Czech Livingstone, comparing his travelling activities to the achievements of German explorers during the Austro-Hungarian expedition to the North Pole in 1872-1874 [Anonymous author 1874b].

Tomáš Winter

Works Cited

Anonymous author 1874a: Anonymous author, Africká výstava, Pokrok 1874, no. 300, clipping in: Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká, p. 109, collection Scrap-books, Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague.

Anonymous author 1874b: Anonymous author, Africká výstava dra Emila Holuba na Staroměstské radnici pražské, Posel z Prahy 1874, no. 261, clipping in: Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká, p. 93, collection Scrap-books, Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague.

Further Reading

 Martin Šámal, Emil Holub: cestovatel, etnograf, sběratel, Praha 2013, pp. 139–143 

Tomáš Winter, Jihoafrické výstavy, in: idem (ed.), Emil Holub, Praha 2023, pp. 113–116 

Archival Sources

Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague, collection Scrap-books, Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká

Anonymous author, Africká výstava dr. Emila Holuba, Posel z Prahy 1874, no. 260, clipping in: Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká, p. 93, collection Scrap-books, Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague

Anonymous author, Africká výstava a českoamerický dívčí sirotčinec, Posel z Prahy 1874, no. 260, clipping in: Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká, p. 93, collection Scrap-books, Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague

Anonymous author, Dnes africká výstava na Staroměstské radnici od 10 hod.…., Posel z Prahy 1874, no. 262, clipping in: Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká, p. 103, collection Scrap-books, Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague

Anonymous author, Dnes africká výstava na Staroměstské radnici od 9 hod.…., Posel z Prahy 1874, no. 265, clipping in: Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká, p. 103, collection Scrap-books, Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague

Anonymous author, Africká výstava, Brousek 1874, no. 44, clipping in: Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká, p. 145, collection Scrap-books, Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague

Anonymous author, Afrikanische Ausstellung, Politik 1874, no. 300, clipping in: Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká, p. 153, collection Scrap-books, Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague

Anonymous author, (Afrikanische Ausstellung), Bohemia 1874, no. 299, clipping in: Scrap book no. 241: Výstava africká, p. 153, collection Scrap-books, Archive of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague