A printed flyer used for his 1889 African exhibition at the Cincinnati Museum Association announced in large capital letters that Steckelmann had “JUST RETURNED FROM SAVAGE AFRICA.” In addition to featuring “Arms, Idols, Household Articles, Clothing, Basket and Knitting Work, and Hides of Wild Animals,” the announcement highlighted the “Greatest Collection of Carved Elephant Tusks, never brought to this Country before.” The exhibition was open “day and night” and adult admission was 15 cents, 10 cents for children. Visitors were encouraged to see “the MANDRIL and KING MONKEYS” and to “Visit N’COCOLO the young African Prince who came to this Country with Mr. Steckelmann 6 months ago.”

The wording of the flyer typifies the language of late nineteenth-century World’s Fairs, where African objects and people were exhibited for the masses and subject to mass-media reporting. By providing objects, animals, and even an opportunity to visit with an African prince, Steckelmann’s traveling “cabinet of curiosities” was certain to draw a crowd.