ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Hans Sloane's collection, the British Library, of broadsides, pamphlets, and newspaper advertisements published between about 1660 and 1740 that describe all manner of human exhibition in London. It looks at the phenomenon of such human exhibition between 1660 and 1740 and its advertisement on broadsides. The chapter examines the particular and peculiar connection between popular display and natural philosophy. Natural philosophers, particularly anatomists, were deeply implicated in popular display and encouraged and legitimized it. Print, in the form of broadsides, pamphlets, and learned and popular articles, forged and maintained this connection. The chapter describes the place of monsters in this era, and the place of these broadsides in print culture. It discusses the sites of display, and also looks at some particular examples of the intersection of popular and learned, including conjoined twins, hermaphrodites, and the "bristly boy".
