Themes in American History

Exploring the Barnum Museum led me to believe that people haven’t changed much at all. The only things really different from the modern day are the technology and knowledge. The “Mechanism of  Human Emotion,” is a great example of what I mean. People in any time period in most places in the world have great use for the ability to judge whether a person is telling the truth.

The entertainment hasn’t changed much either. While probably distinctly less sexist and racist, much of today’s entertainment revolves around people who are different. Giants, like the 8 foot tall woman on the second floor, and Siamese twins resemble things commonly seen on the Discovery Channel, or National Geographic. To be specific, I found “The Drunkard or The Fallen Saved” to be hilarious, despite its age.

While primitive by today’s standards, the cutting-edge technology of the day seems incredibly important in this museum. The steam engine is praised as a “marvel of modern engineering.” Also, there are exhibits dedicated to fossils, and human development.

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As a historical tool, the website helps one visualize the 19th century.Little things like its layout, the wood, and the wording of the descriptions make it easier to experience the actual exhibits. Visualization only goes so far, however, eventually one might want to delve in deeper, where small pictures and hardly legible text would do no good.

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Navigating the life like virtual tour of the  Lost Museum was a refreshing experience. It gave me a sense of experiencing 19th century entertainment in NYC . What I got out of the whole 19th century entertainment industry was that everyone was interested in seeing things that were new and different. Things such as the 8 foot woman or the 4 footer Tom Thumb were some of the highlights of what was seen as different but extremely popular because of the attention that they received. One of the more interesting pictures that I found were that of Chang and Eng who could be thought of as the “original ” Siamese twins.

Overall the virtual tour of the Lost Museum was very interesting. at first it was a little difficult to navigate but once you get the hang of it its very easy. One of the things I liked was the clarity of the website and that it was also very fast to load.

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The website is set up to make the visitor feel like he is in an actual museum. The visitor can “walk” through the museum and look through different displays. By clicking when a question mark appears, the visitor can read the descriptions of the historical artifacts that they are looking at. It is a good historical artifact because it allows people to learn about history. It provides a good 3D visual and provides a wealth of descriptions that encourage learning.



This looks pretty realistic but doesnt feel like an actual museum

Although there are many things that make this website a great historical tool, there are a few turn offs. A virtual museum does not give the same feeling as a real museum. The ability to actually see and touch real artifacts that are within reach is was makes a museum a museum. Seeing virtual reinactments on a screen does not really give a visitor the feeling of seeing something significant. Also, the virtual controls were very annoying. The whole concept is a good idea but the interface was terrible. It took me a while to get the hang of the navigation within the museum. If the controls are improved, the website might be a lot better.

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The Barnum Museum is a display of the rich historical art of the 19th century. The virtual tour is so realistic that it’s almost like being there in person. The entertainment during that era was a combination of music, drama, literature and art. The introductory music to the virtual tour of the museum was upbeat and soulful. Entertainment in the 19th century New York was class segregated. The thriving entertainment industry had a lot to offer to its audience such as theatre, circuses and exhibition. The upper class New Yorkers enjoyed Italian Opera.
The museum mostly consists of wax statues of human and animals. It also has a display of paintings and weapons. Each and every artifact displayed, comes with information describing it making it easier for its viewer to understand and relate to it. The museum has three levels: the first level, second and third. When I clicked on the first floor I entered into P.T Barnum’s office. By clicking on the images a detailed caption appears with all the relevant information. The second floor consists of all the wax works, paintings and weapons of the 19th century New York. The third floor was called the ‘lecture Room’ or the theatre where Shakespeare’s dramas were held. The museum is actually a portrayal that the 19th century New Yorkers loved entertainment. Even though it was class segregated each class enjoyed the entertainment that was available to them.
The museum was destroyed by fire in 1865 but Barnum quickly reopened a second one in a different location and unfortunately it was destroyed as well. Barnum’s American museum was the only place where immigrants, native-born, working class and middle class, men and women could come together.

Barnum used this image to advertise his controversial 1842 exhibition of the FeJee mermaid. Once inside the American Museum, visitors were doubtless surprised by the actual appearance of the so-called mermaid; the astonishment engendered by such misleading promotion came to be an expected part of the American Museum experience. A similar image of a bare-breasted mermaid with flowing hair adorned an eight-foot high color banner on the outside of New York's Concert Hall, where the mermaid debuted before transferring to the American Museum

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There’s always that moment when you wish you were around for something that is no longer there. Well, with our amazing technology, we are able to actually travel back in time to be there. One of the ways we can is with The Lost Museum website, a virtual tour of P.T. Barnum’s American Museum. We are able to explore the museum floor by floor, room by room, by using only the internet. With the mouse being your tour guide, and graphics so good as to have life like rats running across the floor, you are in for a wild ride. However, I found my ride to be somewhat of a interesting yet confusing one. Only confusing in the sense that I felt there was no theme to the museum and there was a little bit of any and everything going on from room to room. What I found most interesting though, was the etiquette slideshow in the lecture room.

The Lecture Room

This tells me that in 19th century New York City, although there was a great amount of diversity, there was also social norms that had to be followed. There were “rules” of how society should behave as a whole and it seems as though that was part of the entertainment. However, it also looks to me as though this shows separation of the economic statuses. Looking at the slides, there seemed to be higher class people, well dressed with furs and top hats, in theaters, etc., which makes sense as to why they were mandated to learn certain etiquette. As a whole, I feel as though this is a great historical tool because it shows the diversity but yet the separation of society at the time and the different types of entertainment and information that was shown then to how present day museums are. For example, we have different museums for different things but in there, everything was combined into one.

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During my visit of “Barnum’s American Museum” I was fascinated by 3-D virtual reconstruction. Barnum purchased this museum in 1841 and it was United States most visited museum until it was burned in 1865.The lost Museum includes wax work, art work, animals, aquarium, and pictures depicting different events. In 19^th Century the sources of entertainment were limited so people were taking advantage of places like Lost Museum. In 19^th century events like Baby shows in which finest babies get rewards were popular. The Museum was full of strange things and paintings. The 8 feet tall sculpture of Miss Anna Swan also draws my attention. Which is one example, why people get attracted to that Museum. Different Articles and letters from Lost Museum tell us about the history of slavery. Although NY State abolished slavery in 1827 but colored people were still unable to visit public places. “New York Tribune” newspaper in which Barnum allowed colored persons to visit his museum only for one day is also very important in history of museum. Unfortunately museum was burned to ground in 1865. The picture below is depicting burning of Museum.

The Museum is full of mysteries, in every corner there is part of history laying. It feels good to visit museum by sitting at home. Although few paintings were unclear with lack of information but overall the visual tour was good experience. The Lost Museum website is really great effort of preserving history.

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While journeying through the Barnum Museum I was intrigued with the many artifacts, newspaper clips and portraits to view and research.  It seems that entertainment in 19th century NYC revolved around looking at people and things that were not the “norm”.  There was a widespread of curiosity towards the ideas of mermaids, over weight people, “albinoes” and things of that sort.  Culturally the museum seems a bit biased in that there is nothing promoting a positive image of any race apart from whites.  It was interesting to find a newspaper article dated February 27, 1849 in the New York Tribune giving permission to allow only a special class of “colored people” into the museum.  However they were only allotted a certain time frame and date for which they were allowed admittance.  The museum was informative in giving information about one aspect of entertainment in NYC history.  It was a bit difficult to navigate through the virtual museum and i found the “archive” tool extremely helpful in finding information.  

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The Lost Museum, a digital recollection of the past, enables the audience to browse history with only a few clicks and drags. The experience allows the audience to click and search with past advertisements of recreations and events of the time, to really understand and be apart of the world of the past. The site does a good job of grabbing the attention of the users by stimulating this mysterious question of “who burned the museum” which entices the audience by setting an overall theme to the entire experience of visit. In my opinion, the museum is certainly an applicable method of pertaining to today’s internet era by creating this online museum. The weakness however derives from the lack of graphics with numerous cliches and outdated maneuvers. The archives is the actual beauty of the entire website because of the massive collection of historical artifacts and documents. The museum’s virtual tour allows the audience to get a good sense of the past by portraying a cultural aspect with pictures and artifacts of events that happened inside and out of the museum.
The 3-D attraction lacks in it of itself because it pretty much was 2-D, but the content of it all seemed to educate the audience through the idea of curiosity and amusement. The museum needs a little bit of more organizing because it seems to be a bit confusing and scattered but all in all was a amusing experience with new things learned and understood. One thing that interested me was the ad of the Baby Show that went on during the events of the museum. What lacked was the in-depth explanation of what really went on during the Baby Shows.

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The website gives the viewer some detailed historical content around 19th century, and events of the Lost Museum. The museum was something that almost everyone attended for entrainment. Similar to today’s Broadway theaters, Barnum’s Museum was something that was magnificently enjoyable in more of an art form. The first time when i was exploring the “Lost museum”, i found that the museum contains every mysterious objects that somehow unique and relates to unfound results.Each and every object in museum makes us to think on our own way no matter how the result is. Mainly, this museum gives a knowledge, facts, events, reality that used to exist during 1800-1900.

In comparison between “The Innocent Boy,” 1836 and “The Lost Museum”, both incidents seemed mysterious because the public never found out about the truth. For instance, the gesture of the boy looked as if he was leaving or just broke inside the apartment. Firstly, he is holding an ax in his hands. Secondly, the door knob seems to be broken, which might suggests the viewer that he just broke inside in order to help the burning Jewett. In addition, the boy is dressed as a hotel doorman which also convey that he was trying to save Jewett.
On the other hand, the boy may be holding axe because he just murdered Jewett and running away from the crime scene. It is mysterious because the painting itself is complicated and hard to decode. It does not give viewers, the exact details. It seems that the artist purposely left things out to gain more costumers/readers. Because the incident occurred around 1800s, this gives an impression of competition. It was written that “… the mass-circulation “penny press” had a field day covering the gruesome story for their largely working-class readers”. This appears that the newspaper company also left the story mysterious because they wanted readers to speak out, think and gain more costumers. In fact, Penny-press newspaper only costed a penny and was in competition with other average newspaper which cost six-cents each. So, this incident is still mysterious.

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The Lost museum website impressed me. It has both, strengths as well weaknesses. You don’t need to pay for an entry ticket and no traveling time is required. You could simply sit comfortably in your house and explore the museum. Many people don’t visit museums just because they have to go there and spend much of their time exploring it. The website is designed in an innovative way, making it fun to explore and learn about history. It’s a very good historical tool for people who are not willing to visit a real museum. There is lot of information on a site that is served to a viewer, in a much more entertaining way. Learning in a fun environment is much more beneficial than forcing yourself into learning something.
The downside of the site is its poor graphical design. I found myself confused at times, didn’t know where to click. The camera doesn’t allow you to walk freely throughout the floors, you feel like you are guided by someone in a strict way. The design could discourage a person from assimilating all the historical information present in the museum.

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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.

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When I explored “The Lost Museum”, I was surprised to find that even though this museum was a virtual space, from the digital 3-D technique, it likes a time machine, and bring you into 19^th century to experience the social life and the cultural history at the age. It was pity that the original museum was destroyed by fire in 1865, but from the website, we can learn something about the museum was the institution at the time, and it combined sensational entertainment, natural history in its menageries, taxidermy exhibits, paintings and so on. I surprised to find that there were some “unusual person” in the museum and it attracted people to visit the museum to satisfy their curiosities. As Barnum advertised the museum as the home of “millions of curiosities,” These unusual person like Nova Scotia Giantess-Anna Swan, who worked in the museum and she was more than seven feet tall and probably was the tallest woman at that time. The conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker from Siam, agreed to a six-week engagement at Barnum’s American Museum. The other especial person, Charles Sherwood Stratton was the four year old son of a Bridgeport, Connecticut, carpenter in 1842 when P.T. Barnum “discovered” him and transformed him into General Tom Thumb, an eleven-year old European marvel. Barnum trained the child to sing, dance, and imitate famous persons. Under the guidance of Barnum, Tom Thumb performed at the American Museum and toured the world as one of the best-known midgets. The special person’s performance became one of the attractive entertainments for people.

On the other hand, the museum not only tells us the entertainment but also the cultural history. For example the industrialization of Glassmaking, by the 1840s, glassmaking had shifted from a highly skilled craft to a more industrialized process. By the 1860s a “shop system,” involving gatherers, blowers, flatteners, and cutters had replaced the individual glass blowers common at the beginning of the century. Despite the growing industrialization of the work, glass workers maintained their skilled worker status and apprenticeship system through strong unionization. The three excerpts below describe the glassblowers’ skills and the industrialization process. The glassmaking reflected the technology and the science development. 

I think this website is interesting; it uses the 3-D technique to attract the visitors to explore the museum. But it also has its weaknesses, that there is not enough documents, and explanation for its exhibitions and the images for its paintings are too small that you will miss some artist history. But overall, the website is successful, not matter it is for education or for the entertainment.

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Barnum Museum consists with an extensive collection related to P.T Barnum. It tells lots of things about culture, entertainment, and history of the United States, especially focused on the period of 19th century. Barnum museum is very strange as well as educational attrations in 19th century. The museum tells an era of invention and discovery with significant developments in the fields of science and technology. The skeleton of the horse, the picture of the brain in the museum tells the educational attraction in the area of science. Where as, the 32lb. Howitzer, and the Draft Wheel shows that the new invention on technology. On top of that, the museum also tells that there was a huge development on the photograph. Photography seems able to capture more detail and information than traditional medium such as, paiting and sculpting. Even many advances in photographic glass plates and priting were made in 19th century.  

  New York City has been always the city the of cultural diversity. People from all over the world come to the New York City for a better life and opportunities. Similarly, the museum also tells about the cultural history of New York City. The City is not only important for the trade but also central attraction for music, theater, and visual arts. Many artists have been drawn into the city because of the growth of theater industry. During 19th century, there was a great change in American theater which resulted tremendous growth in population espically in cities on the East Coast. People had more lesiure time and better standards of living, and they looked to the theater to provide entertaiment – laughter, glitter and sentimentality. Even during from 19th century the actors were considered as a quite socially respectable images.

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In the Lost Museum, there is a model wearing female dress and carrying a metal bucket, however, it is with a male face. It is a figure that represents the image of Confederate President Jefferson Davis when he purportedly disguised himself as his wife in order to get rid of the arrest of Union soldiers. Although media did not have advanced technology to take photos or videos to record the historical events in 1800s, they used many other ways to try to show the situation again.

The model in the Lost Museum is not the only public to present this event, many newspapers had sketches of the photo and draw cartoons to express opinions about it. In the picture, it was a cartoon from Harper’s Weekly. In this cartoon, it mocked the Confederate States and its president with the presentation of feminine attributes. It was the general attitude of Northerners toward Southerners during that time. These Historical records provided perfect evidence of the Civil War about the Northerners’, or even New Yorkers’ opinions.  Furthermore, people during that time had chances to receive news and trends in many different ways, by visiting the museum, reading newspapers or magazines and recieving handouts. The Lost Museum has well preserved these historical records and presented these to the public.

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The Barnum museum brings us back to a time period where we can more than anything imagine a world with endless possibilities. Reading through the museum archives and exhibitions, I realized that a time where internet nor tv existed was a perfect time for show business and entertainment. Ranging from the “Feejee mermaid” to the world tallest woman, if it was for money these show business men would create anything to draw people’s attention. The website is a very useful tool of keeping me focused and immersed since I actually virtually enter into a museum space. If the website was formatted just like any other webpages with endless lines of information with photos here and there, I would be very tempted to navigate away from the page. Another pro is that the virtual space also has an interactive aspect that puts viewers in control giving us the choice to read about an object or an image that intrigues us.

The image below is of a woman named Jenny Lind. In September 1850, Barnum took this Swedish opera singer and brought her to New York to start a new cultural phenomenon, the celebrity. She was called the “Swedish Nightingale” and created what was called then “Lindomania”. Just like how a big celebrity’s possessions are auctioned off with a high price, her songs, clothes, chairs, and pianos were all negotiated and sold by Barnum. Ultimately she became the “standard for measuring not just sopranos … but women”. It is interesting to note that the cultural idea of “celebrity” has its origin in New York, instead of Hollywood and the way top celebrities today set the standards for young girls today was also seen back in 1850.

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Exploring The Lost Museum was a very intriguing experience. Navigating through this virtual museum helped to understand the events and people that shaped New York City and the U.S. as a whole. One exhibit that was especially interesting was the No. 6 Sumner-Brooks Warworks found on the second floor of the museum, which shows an exact representation of the infamous May 22nd assault on Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber by South Carolina representative Preston S. Brooks. Here we see our politics in its infancy, yet very passionately displayed, in its attempt to quell the fight on slavery. Preston Brooks was the cousin of South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, who Senator Sumner, a staunch abolitionist, blasted for what he called his “crime against Kansas”, an area where slavery was beginning to resurface after a 30-year ban. Brooks took to his cousin’s defense and savagely beat Sumner with his cane, which the picture on the right displays. The museum prevalently showed the horrors of slavery as an institution, and brought the the forefront the essence of freedom for the enslaved that bleeds from the veins of our country’s history. The image on the left represents the rising tension in the country during the mid-1800s over the issue of slavery. The Lost Museum was truly rich in history and definitely a great tool in exploring the events, politics and arts of our country.

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When exploring “The Lost Museum”, I indulged at the museum as if I was someone coming from 19^th century.  Established for the purpose of creating a place that entertained people, this Barnum Museum was a success in the 19^th century in New York City. It attracted a lot of audience at that time because of its various content, mirroring the entertainment people enjoyed at that time. As a museum, it combined a waxworks room where interesting wax figures were shown, a picture gallery including a lot of paintings, a “Lecture Room” which functioned as a theatre, and even a zoo. The founder, Barnum, opened this museum in order to feed people’s eager to see exotic animals from around the world. The living white whales, hippopotamus, and elephants were examples of these exotic animals. This museum, therefore, was not only regarded as entertaining but also educational. However, in the 19^th century, fires occurred frequently in such a crowded city. This museum was also burned down by a fire, including all of these animals. Thus, a web version of museum was established. The advantage of this online museum is that people from different time and every part of the world can understand the entertainment in New York City in the 19^th century. With a clear navigation and a comprehensive archive, this website is a great source to study 19^th century themes in New York history. However, making it as popular as it was in the 19^th century seems to be less likely.

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I think in theory the idea of a virtual museum is a great tool in navigating through history. Having that type of access to the past is not only culturally enriching but its definitely shows us how far we’ve come in technological advancements. However, the “Lost Museum” is a poor representation of what a virtual museum should be. The navigation part is the worst part about the museum. The museum has great potential but learning how to use the zoom in/out, pan left/right tool is disconcerting. I grew impatient and nearly gave up.

I did however find it quite clever that they included the rodent on the 2nd floor that happens to run pass your feet when you open the drawer. When opening the drawer I seen the image below that was pretty interesting to me. This slave was exhibited to be 161 yrs old when the autopsy proved her to be only 80 when she died. Barnum still went on telling people that it was a hoax and she was still alive somewhere. haha!

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Today I visited “The Lost Museum.” This virtual museum looked very realistic; I felt like I was actually visiting the museum. I can see how historical and artisitc the museum. Unfortunately, this museum burned down, which I found ironic because in the Picture Gallery, there was an article written by P.T. Barnum that spoke about mysterious fires in New York City and he was trying to identify the criminal behind these fires. “The Lost Museum” portrayed how it was one of the most entertaining landmarks in New York City during its time. If it were still standing, it would defnitely continue to be an attraction in the Big Apple. This museum doesn’t only act as an art gallery but it contains documents that explain some very shocking events in American History including the fires that raged throughout the city and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. New York City is currently known for its various museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Natural History; therefore, P.T. Barnum’s “The Lost Museum” would flourish in nowadays. It possesses many valuable artifacts from America’s nineteenth century entertainment and history. There were images and even figures of animals, tall people, presidents, anything; you name it! These aspects of the museum would make it a very useful historical tool of the nineteenth century.

The exhibit that intrigued me most was the one that had images of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, located on the second floor in the WaxWorks Room. I never knew that John Wilkes Booth was accompanied by two other men, David C. Harold and John H. Surrat. The image below shows the rewards that were issued on April 20th, 1865 by the War Department in Washington D.C. for the three men responsible for the murder of America’s beloved sixteenth president. There was another poster a few posts below talking about the image which is dedicated in memory of Lincoln. It’s the flyer for the play at Ford Theater, during which he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. I think that the addition of these historical artifacts adds meaning and value to the museum and definitely shows that this museum was a landmark.

Rewards for Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

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The Lost Museum ,based of my first glance on the website, seemed like chaotic yet fun way to spend a day back in the 19th century. By going on this website you can tell what kind of spectacles people back in the 19th century did that was considered as their entertainment. Somethings ranging from having wax figurines of caged women all the way to hosting BABY SHOWS! These are some things that if were done today would probably be considered illegal and/or taboos! Some other things they showcased in the museum was the worlds tallest person at 8 feet tall.  And also showcased Joice Heth as an African American slave who was 161 years old as she claimed she was a nursemaid to George Washington. But when she died it was made clear she was no older than 80 years old. Regardless, The Lost Museum can be considered as a mix of today’s Ripley’s Believe it or Not and even The Guinness Book of World Records based of the items they showcased for entertainment.

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