Scudder's American Museum was a museum located in

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from 1810 to 1841, when it was purchased by P.T. Barnum and transformed into the very successful

Barnum's American Museum Barnum's American Museum was located at the corner of Broadway, Park Row, and Ann Street in what is now the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City, from 1841 to 1865. The museum was owned by famous showman P. T. Barnum, who purc ...

Before Scudder

The roots of the museum date back to 1791, when the "American Museum" was founded by

John Pintard John Pintard, Jr. (May 18, 1759 – June 21, 1844) was an American merchant and philanthropist. Biography He was a descendant of Antoine Pintard, a Huguenot from La Rochelle, France. He was orphaned when his mother died when he was "a fortnight ...

"under the patronage of the

Tammany Society Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

."Westervelt, Harman C
John Pintard
''The Chronotype'' (May 1873) It was located at 57 King Street, with Pintard serving as secretary and Gardner Baker (more of a showman between the two) as keeper. The museum was moved to a building at the intersection of Pearl and Broad streets by 1794 called the "Exchange". It occupied a thirty-by-sixty foot room with a high ceiling, and later opened a second room including a menagerie.Dennett, Andrea Stulman
Weird and Wonderful: The Dime Museum in America
pp. 14-17 (1997) It was called "Baker's American Museum" after Baker took control of it from the Tammany Society in 1795. Relying now only on ticket sales to finance operations, he raised admission prices and kept attempting to add new curiosities to draw visitors.The Old Merchants of New York City, Volume 2
p. 224-25 (1885) After Baker died in 1798, and his widow died in 1800, the collection was purchased by William I. Waldron. It then came into the hands of painter Edward Savage, who opened the "Columbian Gallery of Painting and City Museum" in 1802, and hired John Scudder to oversee the museum collection.

Scudder

After earning money as a seaman, the collection became the property of John Scudder in 1809, and he opened "Scudder's American Museum" in March 1810 at 21 Chatham Street. The museum moved into part of the City's former poor house in 1817, along with other civic institutions.New York Institution
''American Monthly Magazine'' Vol. 1 No. 4, pp. 271-2 (August 1817) Poet

Fitz-Greene Halleck Fitz-Greene Halleck (July 8, 1790 – November 19, 1867) was an American poet and member of the Knickerbocker Group. Born and raised in Guilford, Connecticut, he went to New York City at the age of 20, and lived and worked there for nearly fo ...

referenced this social experiment in an 1819 satirical piece which includes the lines: "Once the old alms house, now a school of wisdom, Sacred to Scudder's shells and Dr. Griscom." After Scudder died in August 1821, control of the museum fell to his heirs.Ladies' Literary Cabinet
p. 112 (August 11, 1821) (noting death of Scudder on August 7 "after a lingering illness" "in the 45th year of his age.") Scudder's son (John Jr.) eventually became manager of the museum, and moved it into a five-story building on the corner of Broadway and Ann Street (across the street from

St. Paul's Chapel St. Paul's Chapel is a chapel building of Trinity Church, an episcopal parish, located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton Street and Vesey Street, in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1766, it is the oldest surviving church building in Man ...

) in December 1830. John Jr. was fired after family squabbles in 1831, and later brought back, but the family decided to sell the concern in 1841.Orosz, Joel
Curators and Culture: The Museum Movement in America, 1740-1870
p. 132 (1990)

Exhibits

The early collection from the Tammany years included an American bison, an 18-foot yellow snake of South American origin, a lamb with two-heads, wax figures, pieces of Indian, African, and Chinese origin. Baker also added a guillotine with beheaded wax figure.Alexander, Edward P
Museum Masters: Their Museums and Their Influence
p. 66 (1983) In 1823, John Scudder, Jr. authored ''A Companion to The American Museum'' as a guide to its collection. By this stage (when the museum was located in the old poor house), the museum also had a forest scene in its large showroom with 80 stuffed animals and over 160 glass cases, with 600 specimens.

Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his wo ...

and Gustave de Beaumont visited the museum in 1831. Expecting to see paintings, Beaumont wrote that instead they "laughed like the blessed" to see the sideshow-like contents such as a "

magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...

and some stuffed birds." The museum was at that time in the five-story building that was its final home, and had four halls. The first contained the stuffed birds, the second quadrupeds and fish, the third "miscellaneous curiosities", and the last was a "Grand Cosmorama, which contains Views of most of the principal cities of the world."Tocqueville in America
p. 150 (1996 ed.) Holdings at the museum included the first American flag hoisted over New York City on the day the British departed in November 1783. History of the Flag of the United States of America
p. 285-86 (1880)(reporting that the flag was destroyed in the 1865 fire of Barnum's)

References

External links

{{Commons category, Scudder's American Museum, position=left 1810 establishments in New York (state) 1841 disestablishments in the United States Defunct museums in New York City