On September 8, 1906, Ota Benga, a boyish-looking young man from the Congo, was first exhibited in the Bronx Zoo Monkey House. The exhibit drew record crowds to the zoo while stoking controversy and attracting global attention. More than a century later, accounts of the episode have been distorted by omission, half-truth, and outright deception. The episode highlights the consequences of racial pseudo-science and raises troubling questions about what we know, and what we think we know, about our past.