I learned that Barnum’s museum was somewhat different than most of the mainstream museums of today, not only in the exhibits themselves, but the general layout of the museum. I could say that the items he displayed are somewhat similar to what I’ve seen in Ripley’s Believe it Or Not exhibits; actually, Ripley’s displays a few items that were supposedly salvaged from Barnum’s, like the Fiji Mermaid. The Coney Island Sideshow also tries displaying “different” people in the same manner. The layout of the museum looked as though the large crowds it accommodated must have been extremely congested.
Entertainment in 19th century New York City was geared more towards the outlandish back then than it is now, due to the public love of what was considered an oddity. Jaded New Yorkers nowadays would probably laugh at the exhibits now, but none the less, we still crave obscene and original as well
Fiji Mermaid depiction, originally from The New York Herald 1842
. The website was decent enough; I think that the archives provided more useful reading, since the graphics of the museum tour were prone to malfunction.