No laughing matter? Reimagining the statuette of a ‘comic’ actor with dwarfism at the British Museum

Lawrence, Isabelle

No laughing matter? Reimagining the statuette of a ‘comic’ actor with dwarfism at the British Museum

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No_laughing_matter__Reimagining_the_statuette_of_a__comic__actor_with_dwarfism_at_the_British_Museum_25_04_07_21_07_27.pdf

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561.96 KB

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Adobe PDF

Checksum (CRC64NVME)

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Resource type

Book chapter

Creator (person)

Lawrence, Isabelle

Date published

2025

Abstract

In recent decades, museum professionals, academics, and activists have increasingly highlighted how disability has been ‘buried in the footnotes’ of history. These critics have pointed to the ways in which disability has been underrepresented and misrepresented in museum spaces, contributing to an environment of discrimination and inequality. However, the potential for change has also been emphasised, and museums have increasingly been re-envisaged as equitable spaces that can contribute to social change, challenging ableist attitudes and expectations. What implications should this have for the way in which museums approach historic collections as we attempt to reveal histories of disability? This chapter explores this question, focusing on a single object within the British Museum collection: a Hellenistic terracotta figurine of an actor with dwarfism that, at the time of writing, was described online as having a ‘head overlarge and extremely ugly’ (Object Record, Collections Online). Charting how this object was radically reinterpreted throughout a collaborative collections research project, in which people with lived experience of disability contributed to decision-making, this chapter contemplates the potential impact of the ideas generated on future collections engagement.