While exploring the Barnum Museum, I begin to get a sense of satirical humor. Alot of the displays around the museum depict different elements of entertainment durin the 1800’s while other displays have a more historical, yet still slightly comical and definitely pro-abolitionist, approach to them. While comparing the entertainment industry of today to that of the 1800’s, the main difference I notice is that it didn’t take as much smoke and lights to entertain the masses. It also seemed to have begun a trend in american entertainment where the elementary working class could easily be turned into something to look at or exploit like they did in the baby show.
As a historical tool, The Lost Museum website seems to be a very useful tool for investigational work about entertainment in the 1800’s. With certain elements like the 3D tour giving an in person perspective of the set up and a full archive of the exhibits, I found the website to be very informative. The exhibits
Tom Thumb and Bride
that were chosen to be shown in length also had a certain aspect of realness to them because being able to interact with them gave a sense of actually being there.