This essays explores for the first time the phenomenon of ethno-exhibitions in 19th century Italy. It focuses on the 1884 Turin General Exhibitions and analyzes how the first Italian ethjno-exibition of living African human beings was staged. It does that on the basis of entirely unpublished archival sources, by a great variety of sources, including the iconographic ones and by a comparative perspective, which provides an interpretation of this Italian experience with the wider European practices.
