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Barnum's American Museum was a
dime museum Dime museums were establishments that grew in popularity starting from 1870 that were used to display freak show performers, human anatomy exhibitions, dioramas, oddities, and moral lectures to the general public.Sears, Clare. “Electric Brillia ...
located at the corner of Broadway, Park Row, and Ann Street in what is now the
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of
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,
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, from 1841 to 1865. The museum was owned by famous showman P. T. Barnum, who purchased Scudder's American Museum in 1841. The museum offered both strange and educational attractions and performances. Some were extremely reputable and historically or scientifically valuable, while others were less so.


History

In 1841, Barnum acquired the building and natural history collection of Scudder's American Museum for less than half of its appraised value with the financial support of Francis Olmsted, by quickly purchasing it the day after the soon to be buyers, the Peale Museum Company, failed to make their payment. He converted the five-story exterior into an advertisement lit with
limelight Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light)James R. Smith (2004). ''San Francisco's Lost Landmarks'', Quill Driver Books. is a non-electric type of stage lighting that was once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illum ...
. The museum opened on January 1, 1842. Its attractions made it a combination zoo,
museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...
, lecture hall,
wax museum A wax museum or waxworks usually consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses, wearing real clothes. Some wax museums have a special section dubbe ...
,
theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...
and
freak show A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "Freak, freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual Human#Anatomy and physiology, humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, t ...
, in what was, at the same time, a central site in the development of American
popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art
f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...
or mass art, sometimes contraste ...
. Barnum filled the American Museum with
diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like mili ...
s,
panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...
s, " cosmoramas", scientific instruments, modern appliances, a flea circus, a loom powered by a dog, the trunk of a tree under which Jesus' disciples supposedly sat, an
oyster bar An oyster bar, also known as an oyster saloon, oyster house or a raw bar service, is a restaurant specializing in serving oysters, or a section of a restaurant which serves oysters buffet-style. Oysters have been consumed since ancient times and w ...
, a rifle range, waxworks, glass blowers, taxidermists, phrenologists, pretty baby contests, Ned the learned seal, the
Fiji Mermaid The Fiji mermaid (also Feejee mermaid) was an object composed of the torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish. It was a common feature of sideshows where it was presented as the mummified body of a creature that was su ...
(a mummified monkey's torso with a fish's tail),
midget Midget (from ''midge'', a tiny biting insect) is a term for a person of unusually short stature that is considered by some to be pejorative due to its etymology. While not a Medical terminology, medical term like ''dwarf'' (for a person with d ...
s, Chang and Eng the Siamese twins, a menagerie of exotic animals that included beluga whales in an aquarium, giants, Native Americans who performed traditional songs and dances, Grizzly Adams's trained bears and performances ranging from magicians,
ventriloquist Ventriloquism or ventriloquy is an act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) speaks in such a way that it seems like their voice is coming from a different location, usually through a puppet known as a "dummy". The act of ventrilo ...
s and
blackface Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...
minstrels to adaptations of biblical tales and ''
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''. At its peak, the museum was open fifteen hours a day and had as many as 15,000 visitors a day. Some 38 million customers paid the 25 cents admission to visit the museum between 1841 and 1865. The total population of the United States in 1860 was under 32 million. In November 1864, the Confederate Army of Manhattan attempted and failed to burn down the museum, but on July 13, 1865, the American Museum burned to the ground in one of the most spectacular fires New York has ever seen. Animals at the museum were seen jumping from the burning building, only to be shot by police. Many of the animals unable to escape the blaze burned to death in their enclosures, including the two beluga whales who burned to death after the glass panes of their tank were broken in an attempt to quell the fire. It was allegedly during this fire that a fireman by the name of Johnny Denham killed an escaped
tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...
with his ax before rushing into the burning building and carrying out a 400-pound woman on his shoulders. Barnum's New Museum opened September 6, 1865, at 539-41 Broadway, between Spring and Prince Streets, but that also burned down, on March 3, 1868. It was after this that Barnum moved on to politics and the
circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
industry. Barnum's American Museum was one of the most popular attractions of its time. The site at Ann Street was then used for a new building for the ''
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'' newspaper. In July 2000, a
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version opened on the Internet, supported by a grant from the
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. It is hosted by
CUNY The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...
and was maintained through 2015.


Advertisement

One of the biggest attractions and advantages to the success of the American Museum was Barnum's advertising strategy. Barnum's self-professed goal was "to make the Museum the town wonder and talk of the town." To do this he was "not above exploiting his patrons' ignorance and credulity from time to time," as seen in some of his most well-known schemes: the Fiji mermaid, the Little Woolly horse, and the 'to the egress' signs. Barnum capitalized on the draw of some of his most famous attractions, often publishing articles in newspapers claiming that his exhibits were fake, which caused audiences to return to see them for themselves. He printed off countless massive colored posters displaying the many exhibits within the museum. These posters often exaggerated the attractions they advertised, but this did not stop visitors from returning after finding out they had been misled. The poster for the Fejee mermaid was so massive that it covered a majority of the front of the museum.


Attractions

The museum's collection included items collected throughout the world over a period of 25 years. The museum offered many attractions which grew to great fame. One of the most famous was General Tom Thumb, a 35-inch tall
dwarf Dwarf, dwarfs or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a supernatural being from Germanic folklore * Dwarf, a human or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a sh ...
who eventually garnered so much fame and success that
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
saw his performances twice, and
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
personally congratulated Thumb on his wedding. Thumb wasn't the only physical oddity; there was also the
Fiji Mermaid The Fiji mermaid (also Feejee mermaid) was an object composed of the torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish. It was a common feature of sideshows where it was presented as the mummified body of a creature that was su ...
and Josephine Boisdechene, who had a large
beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, beards are most commonly seen on pubescent or adult males, though women have been observed with beards ...
, which had grown to the length of two inches when she was only eight years old. As if to supplement Tom Thumb, the museum also had William Henry Johnson (Zip the Pinhead), who was one of Barnum's longest-running attractions. Barnum also exhibited giants such as Routh Goshen, who was known as the "Arabian Giant", and Anna Swan. Another famous attraction was Chang and Eng,
conjoined twins Conjoined twins, popularly referred to as Siamese twins, are twins joined '' in utero''. It is a very rare phenomenon, estimated to occur in anywhere between one in 50,000 births to one in 200,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in south ...
, who were extremely argumentative, both with each other and Barnum himself. The museum also boasted an elegant theatre, called the "Lecture Room," and characterized in the popular '' Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion'' of 1853, "one of the most elegant and recherche halls of its class to be found anywhere," which would offer "every species of entertainment ... 'from grave to gay, from lively to severe,' ... ndjudiciously purged of every semblance of immorality." Impressively, these shows " ivaledor even xcelledthose of the neighboring theaters." This was possible because: 1) these performances occurred in a space labeled a lecture hall, helping to distinguish them for those who would never have been near a theatre, and 2) " arnummade the theatre into something it had rarely been before: a place of family entertainment, where men and women, adults and children, could intermingle safe in the knowledge that no indecencies would assault their senses either on stage or off." Barnum implemented several
morality play The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...
s to be shown in his auditorium, many of which taught against the dangers of drinking. Werner points out the accessibility of these performances saying, "many persons who would not be seen in a theatre visited regularly the Museum Lecture Room—Barnum would never consent to calling it a theatre—where the moral dramas of ' Joseph and his Brethren,' 'Moses,' and ' The Drunkard' were performed." These were especially popular with women, as
alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...
was becoming rampant among working-class men. These plays were often seen as the height of family-friendly entertainment, because they taught good lessons that were appropriate for all ages. At one point, Barnum noticed that people were lingering too long at his exhibits. He posted signs indicating "This Way to the Egress". Not knowing that "Egress" was another word for "Exit", people followed the signs to what they assumed was a fascinating exhibit — and ended up outside. The five-story building also served great educational value. Aside from the different attractions, the museum also promoted educational ends, including natural history in its aquarium, menageries, and
taxidermy Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proces ...
exhibits; history in its paintings, wax figures, and memorabilia; and temperance reform and Shakespearean dramas in the "Lecture Room" or theater. It was also the first museum to put human oddities on display as an organized
freak show A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "Freak, freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual Human#Anatomy and physiology, humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, t ...
. It was the American Museum that began the modern-day trend of exploiting the human body for the sake of mass entertainment. One of Barnum's most successful attractions was his large selection of living animals, which were a highlight for the visitors who had never seen exotic creatures. The animals in Barnum's "happy family" were poorly treated at best and neglected at worst. Their standard of living is exemplified in the beluga whales he kept in a tank in the basement. The whales lived in a small 576 square foot tank, and when they frequently died, Barnum "promptly set about procuring additional specimens."


See also

* Barnum Museum – completed in 1893 in
Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...
*
Dime museum Dime museums were establishments that grew in popularity starting from 1870 that were used to display freak show performers, human anatomy exhibitions, dioramas, oddities, and moral lectures to the general public.Sears, Clare. “Electric Brillia ...
*
Sideshow In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, traveling carnival, carnival, fair, or other such attraction. They historically featured human oddity exhibits (so-called “Freak show, freak shows”), pr ...
* St. Paul Building, later built on the museum's site


References


External links

* * {{coord, 40.7112, -74.0086, type:landmark_region:US-NY, display=title 1841 establishments in New York (state) 1865 disestablishments Broadway (Manhattan) Defunct museums in New York City Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Financial District, Manhattan John M. Trimble buildings Museums established in 1841 P. T. Barnum Dime museums