Figure 5

Citation

J. D. Dunn (Meadville, Pennsylvania). “Mungo Park: The Spotted Boy.” circa 1875. Greg French Collection. Mirror of Race, 25 Jan. 2021, mirrorofrace.bc.edu/items/show/122. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

Title

Mungo Park: The Spotted Boy

Subject

Mungo Park: The Spotted Boy

Creator

J. D. Dunn (Meadville, Pennsylvania)

Date

circa 1875

Type

Studio Portrait

Identifier

Figure 5

Rights Holder

Greg French Collection

Original Format

Carte de visite, albumen print

Factual Commentary

According to the account on the back of this photograph, Mungo Park was found in 1868 in South Africa. Modern medicine would probably identify his condition as vitiligo, which causes the skin to lose pigmentation, but in the 19th century, when no one understood its scientific cause, there was a fascination with cases where dark-skinned people seemed to be turning as white ?as the skin of the fairest Caucasian,? as W. H. Vosper writes here. Such cases caused anxiety, because they suggested that 'colored' people might become white, or that skin color could be an accidental rather than an essential feature of a person?s physiognomy. This undermined the notion of clear division between the races.. Vosper was a photographer operating in Sydney, Australia; this is possibly a copy photograph by J. D. Dunn.