Barnum's American Museum

Located at Ann Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan and owned by P. T. Barnum from 1841 until it burned down in 1865, the American Museum housed a diverse collection of exhibits, ranging from such oddities as a huge hairball extracted from the belly of a swine to those of a scientific or quasi-scientific nature, such as aggregations of insects, shells, and butterflies. It was the site of America's first public aquarium, where visitors could observe both commonplace and exotic creatures. Among the latter were a number of beluga whales, whose saltwater requisites were pumped in from New York Bay. The museum also included a menagerie of the familiar, such as tigers, bears, lions, primates, and the obscure, including a giraffe, a rhinoceros, and a hippopotamus. The last-mentioned animal was reputedly the first of its kind displayed in the United States. Theatrical productions were staged in the museum's Lecture Room, including an adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) and the temperance drama Ten Nights in a Barroom. In the twenty-three and one-half years that Barnum owned the museum, ticket sales approached 38 million. Distinguished visitors included Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and the Prince of Wales.

Bibliography

Saxon, A. H. P. T. Barnum: The Legend and the Man. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.

—William F. O'Connor