Barnum's American Museum facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Barnum's American Museum
Barnum's American Museum in 1858
General information
Location	Manhattan, New York City
Opened	1841
Closed	1865
Demolished	1868

Barnum's American Museum was a very popular place in New York City. It was like a fun, exciting museum located in Manhattan. It opened in 1841 and closed in 1865. A famous showman named P. T. Barnum owned it. He bought an older museum in 1841 and made it his own.

The museum had many different things to see. Some attractions were educational and historically important. Others were just for fun and entertainment.

The Museum's Exciting History
Barnum's Clever Advertising
- Tricky Tactics and Big Posters
Famous Attractions and Shows
See also

The Museum's Exciting History

In 1841, P. T. Barnum bought a building that used to be Scudder's American Museum. He got it for a great price. Barnum quickly bought it after another company couldn't pay. He turned the five-story building into a huge advertisement. It was lit up with bright lights. The new museum opened on January 1, 1842.

What Made the Museum Special?

Barnum's museum was a mix of many things. It was like a zoo, a museum, a lecture hall, and a wax museum all in one. It also had a theater and a place to see unusual acts. This museum was a big part of how American popular culture grew.

Barnum filled his museum with amazing exhibits. There were dioramas and panoramas, which are like large 3D scenes or paintings. You could see scientific tools and new inventions. There was even a flea circus and a loom powered by a dog!

The museum also showed some very unique items. These included a piece of a tree where Jesus' disciples supposedly sat. There was an oyster bar and a rifle range. Visitors could also see wax figures and glass blowers.

Amazing Attractions and Shows

The museum had many live attractions too. There were taxidermists showing stuffed animals. You could find phrenologists who studied head shapes. There were also "pretty baby" contests.

Some famous acts included Ned the learned seal. The Fiji mermaid was also a big draw. This was a mummified monkey's body with a fish's tail. The museum also featured midgets and Chang and Eng, the Siamese twins.

Barnum also had a collection of exotic animals. These included beluga whales in a large tank. There were also giants and Native Americans performing songs and dances. Grizzly Adams showed his trained bears.

The shows ranged from magicians and ventriloquists to musical acts. They even performed plays based on biblical stories.

A Popular Place to Visit

At its busiest, the museum was open for fifteen hours every day. It could have as many as 15,000 visitors daily. Between 1841 and 1865, about 38 million people paid 25 cents to enter. To compare, the entire population of the United States in 1860 was less than 32 million.

Fires and New Beginnings

In November 1864, there was an attempt to burn down the museum. However, it failed. On July 13, 1865, a huge fire destroyed the American Museum. It was one of the biggest fires New York had ever seen.

Animals tried to escape the burning building. Police officers had to shoot some of them. Many animals, including the two beluga whales, died in the fire. The glass of their tank broke while people tried to put out the flames.

After this fire, Barnum opened a new museum. Barnum's New Museum opened on September 6, 1865. It was located at 539-41 Broadway. But this new museum also burned down on March 3, 1868. After these fires, Barnum decided to focus on politics and the circus business. Barnum's American Museum was truly one of the most popular places of its time.

The original museum site on Ann Street was later used for the New York Herald newspaper building. In July 2000, a virtual museum version of Barnum's American Museum opened online. It was supported by a grant and was available until 2015.

Barnum's Clever Advertising

One of the main reasons for the museum's success was Barnum's smart advertising. Barnum wanted to make his museum "the town wonder and talk of the town." He was very good at getting people interested.

Tricky Tactics and Big Posters

Barnum sometimes used clever tricks to get people to visit. For example, he would publish newspaper articles claiming some of his exhibits were fake. This made people curious and they would come to see for themselves.

He also printed many huge, colorful posters. These posters showed the many exhibits inside the museum. They often made the attractions seem even more amazing than they were. Even if visitors felt a little tricked, they still came back. The poster for the Fiji mermaid was so big it covered most of the museum's front.

Famous Attractions and Shows

The Lecture Room of Barnum's American Museum, 1853.

The museum had a collection of items from all over the world. These were gathered over 25 years. Many attractions became very famous.

Unique Performers

One of the most famous was General Tom Thumb. He was a 35-inch tall dwarf. He became so well-known that Queen Victoria watched him perform twice. Even Abraham Lincoln congratulated him on his wedding.

Tom Thumb was not the only person with unique physical traits. There was also Josephine Boisdechene. She was known for her large beard, which grew to two inches when she was only eight years old.

Another long-running attraction was William Henry Johnson, also known as Zip the Pinhead. Barnum also showed giants like Routh Goshen, the "Arabian Giant," and Anna Swan. Chang and Eng, the conjoined twins, were also famous. They were known for their strong personalities.

The Elegant Lecture Room

The museum also had a beautiful theater called the "Lecture Room." In 1853, a popular magazine called it "one of the most elegant halls." It offered "every kind of entertainment." The shows were carefully chosen to be family-friendly.

These shows were so good that they were as exciting as those in other theaters. They were special because they were in a "lecture hall," not a "theater." This made people feel comfortable visiting, even if they usually avoided theaters. Barnum made it a place where families could enjoy shows together.

Plays with Good Lessons

Barnum put on many plays that taught good lessons. Many of these plays warned against the dangers of too much drinking. People who wouldn't go to a regular theater often visited the Museum Lecture Room. Barnum always insisted it was a lecture room, not a theater.

Plays like 'Joseph and his Brethren' and 'Moses' were performed. These plays were very popular with women. They were seen as great family entertainment because they taught good values.

The "Egress" Trick

At one point, Barnum noticed that visitors were staying too long at the exhibits. He put up signs that said "This Way to the Egress." Many people didn't know that "Egress" meant "Exit." They followed the signs, thinking it was a new, exciting exhibit. Instead, they found themselves outside the museum!

Educational Displays

The five-story building also had great educational value. Besides the fun attractions, the museum taught about natural history. It had an aquarium, animal collections, and taxidermy exhibits. History was shown through paintings, wax figures, and special items.

The "Lecture Room" also featured plays by Shakespeare. The American Museum was one of the first places to display people with unusual physical traits as an organized show. It started a trend of showing the human body for mass entertainment.

Animal Care

One of Barnum's most popular attractions was his large collection of living animals. Many visitors had never seen such exotic creatures before. However, the animals in Barnum's "happy family" were not always treated well. For example, the beluga whales lived in a small tank in the basement. When they often died, Barnum would quickly get new ones.