Themes in American History



Exploring The Lost Museum was a very interesting experience. It took me quite a while to be able to learn how to navigate through this virtual museum. On one hand, this website is interactive and keeps you involved in exploring the website the way you want to. You can start exploring from the ground floor or from the 3^rd floor and it’s up to you to pick what you want to read about. On the other hand, it takes too long to figure it out how to use this virtual museum as a historical tool and I wish they would simplify and incorporate table of contest on each floor. Overall, it helped me to understand the events and entertainment that was popular at that time in NYC and how P. T. Barnum’s American Museum was a highlight for many visitors in mid-nineteenth-century in New York City.

I found this picture in Waxworks Room on the second floor. This picture represents one of the things that I have learned through the website. It helped me to learn that although President Lincoln invited African American men to serve in Union Army, they were still at disadvantage and were underpaid and treated as inferiors.  

At the end, The Barnum museum taught me about entertainment in 19th century in NYC. This was a time when Tom Thumb and the original Siamese Twins were highly popular for entertainment. According to the website, “Much of what made the enterprise so remarkable was carried on by Barnum’s circus. Among the items on display were the farcical, unconvincingly cobbled together “FeJee Mermaid” and very real, majestic whales.  Lectures on religion and abolition took place in the museum’s theater.” This shows us that New Yorkers were entertained in various ways even in the days without TV or Digital World that our generation is consumed by entirely and sees it as almost the only way to be entertained or taught.

Tags: 19th century, Barnum's American Museum, entertainment, lost museum

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