The New York City history blog The Bowery Boys has a great post on Barnum’s American Museum that includes a podcast, lots of images and a link to The City University of New York website devoted to Barnum’s, The Lost Museum. Both sites are worth checking out.
Barnum’s American Museum was located at the corner of Broadway and Ann Street in New York City from 1841 to it was destroyed by fire in 1865 [pdf of NY Times Article]. P.T. Barnum’s partner was John Scudder the original owner of the museum (then known as Scudder’s American Museum). Scudder recently found new fame as character inspiration for the HBO series Carnivale – a must see for those interested in carnies, the ballies, flying jennys, sugar shacks, the midway, and oh, the Great Depression.
According to wikipedia:
Barnum opened his museum on January 1, 1842 to create a place where families could go for wholesome, affordable entertainment but his success drew from the fact that he knew how to entice an audience. Its attractions made it a combination zoo, museum, lecture hall, wax museum, theater and freak show,that was, at the same time, a central site in the development of American popular culture. At its peak, the museum was open fifteen hours a day and had as much as 15,000 visitors a day.
On July 13th, 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 officers. Barnum tried to open another museum soon after that, but that also burned down in a mysterious fire in 1868. It was after this time that Barnum moved onto politics and the circus industry.
While we’re talking Phineas Taylor Barnum, we should point readers to Robin Freeds’ “In Business for Myself: P.T. Barnum and the Management of Spectacle.”
Also, the Disability History Museum has the full text of Barnum’s 1860 catalog online.
Hey
Interesting blog.
I’m searching for details on how PT Barnum got beluga whales from the St. Lawrence River to NYC and if he was the first? We’ve read elsewhere of whales being in Boston in 1861.
Thanks.
Ben
Hi Ben,
Baluga Whales are known to the St. Lawrence and Barnum did bring one to his Museum in 1861 by crating it in a large box filled with wet seaweed and keeping it wet during the journey. It’s all detailed in his book: “Struggles and triumphs; or, The recollections of P.T. Barnum: or, The recollections of P.T. Barnum” – which is online for free. You can also find details in an 1890s story on two other whales brought to NYC by searching the New York Times – use the key words – whale st. lawrence barnum
The Northern New York Library Network has an extensive online newspaper archive, but a cursory look didn’t reveal anything new – except the story of the death of Barnum’s whale during the fire in 1865.
You might also take a look at “P. T. Barnum and the Popularization of Natural History” by John Rickards Betts in the Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Jun. – Sep., 1959), pp. 353-368.
Good luck and thanks for reading.
An interesting and info post. Thanks for sharing this info post.