Themes in American History

According to Chudacoff, during the civil war, contrary to New York, Philadelphia, relative unity prevailed. Industries there met needs for war materiel, and workers adjusted to inflation and succeeded in getting some wage increases. Philadelphia residents responded relatively calmly to government quotas requiring that the city furnish a certain number of recruits for the Union army, and a strong police force deterred potential social upheaval. (81) Instead, in New York, there had riots which caused by unfair Draft Laws. The whites laborers were attacking black people and republicans and it lasted for four days and resulting in more than four hundred deaths. Most of all, it was a race riot. Through the image, we can see rioters subjected black men to the most brutal violence: torture, hanging, and burning.

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Richmond, Virginia, like New York, was a fast growing city between 1800 and 1860. Of course it didn’t grow as quick as New York. There are a variety of things that the two cities had in common even though New York was more business-related, whereas Richmond was more of a plantation/farm-based city. Richmond was following the same path as New York, having their first City Hall built in 1816, says visitrichmondva.com. In the 19th century, slavery was common in both of these cities. It’s obvious that a city as large as New York would need slaves to help regulate the flow of business and in Virginia, there were over a hundred slaves per plantation. Fortunately, slavery was abolished in New York in 1827. On the other hand, in the South, farming was a big part of daily life and they needed slaves and it was impossible for them to free a slave. “Only in Richmond, where slave manpower was essential to iron and tobacco provessiong, did a large proportion of slaves still persist in 1860” (Chudacoff 64). Due to their selfishness to keep slaves, Virginia joined the Confederacy, the states that supported slavery. Havoc broke loose in the mid 19th-century when the slave-free North, also known as the Union, and pro-slavery South clashed in a war known as the Civil War. The outcome of this war shaped the way for slavery for years to come. According to visitrichmondva.com, Richmond actually became the capital of the Confederate States. As common as Richmond was, it’s population didn’t burst until the mid to late 19th century, whereas New York experienced a sudden population growth starting from the 1820s, onward. “The establishment and expansion of the COnfederate government’s bureaucracy helped to triple the population of Richmond” (Chudacoff 74).

Slave auction in Richmond, Virginia on September 27th, 1856.

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Throughout the  19th century, the primary occupation of people living in Kentucky was farming whereas for New Yorkers was manufacturing and constructing. All the dirty and hard works like producing hemp, and processing tobacco were attended to by slaves. The number of slaves appeared  to relate to the production of market-oriented crops and not to the amount of land owned and farmed. Also the small farming tasks were performed by slaves.Although  slaves were free and not owned, they had been given the most difficult tasks than any others. In contrast to kentucky, New York was one of the developed city where prominent Americans used to live there. As there were  many renowned individual living in the city, they  were able to import and own the slaves even just to make their standard in the society.

The demand for slaves were mainly for manufacturing, construction, and other household works. In contrast to New York, between 1850-1860 Kentucky used to export more slaves than did any other states (wikipedia ,”Slaves in Kentucky”). African American slaves used to be exported through Tennessee and Mississippi river from kentucky to New York and other states. During 19th century as all people living there were engaged to farming and crop production, there were no people owning any slaves. There was no demand for slaves whereas in New York, the demand was higher for the purpose of manufacturing, construction etc. The business was mostly depending on the slavery trade.

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By early 1800s, after the revolution, large number of slaves acquired freedom. Most of them moved into the cities such as New York and Philadelphia.  There are two main reasons why many ex-slaves left for major cities. First of all, there are several job opportunities so that they can earn their own money for living. Second, at that time, ex-slaves get a chance to get married and live with their families. Moreover, free African Americans could establish schools, churches, benevolent organizations and so forth (Chudacoff pg.60).

Free African American

However, compare to philadelphia, more than twice number of freed African American in New York City are skilled workers. It is because white New York craftsman used to rely on slave worker during 18th century. The other main reason is many cities’ mulato emigres from the South had skilled trades (Chudacoff pg.61).

In conclusion, whether free African American labors were skilled or not, the main point of their life is they can establish their own society, community, family and enjoy their culture.

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Commercialization and Urban expansion made a huge impact to American cities, such as New York City and Philadelphia. All American cities could be characterized by their compactness (Chudacoff 65). After 1810 slaves that were freed by the Gradual Manumission act began to increase the free African-American population in the city. The city became the center of free African-American life. They were drawn to cities because of higher chance of employment and a higher concentration of free African Americans. There is a greater chance to find an acceptable marriage partner to establish a family, and participate in activities of African churches, schools, Fraternal societies, and organizations (Chudacoff 69).

Afican-American Scubwoman

In New York City, freed slaves were more likely to have a better skill than freed slaves in Philadelphia, because  New York artisans had relied heavily on slave labor throughout the eighteenth century and because many of the mulatto had skills trades (Chudacoff 70). However, in both cities, the majority of free African-American Population were women and main jobs were a domestic servants, laundresses, produce sellers, and prostitutes.

Domestic work was the most common form of job done by urban black woman.

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Immigration had important effects on the economic life, housing and culture of cities. One of the similarities between New York City and Boston is by the 1850s, more than half of the residents were foreign born(Chudacoff 64). On the other hand, in the 1820s and 1830s, Boston established free elementary schools in 1818, New York followed in 1832(Chudacoff 52).

Another similarities of these two cities are until the 1850s, the settled areas of even the largest cities, such as New York and Boston, rarely extended beyond the two miles from the city center—the average distance a person can walk in half an hour. Thus historians have labeled this early urban configuration the “walking city” because of its size and major mode of conveyance(Chudacoff 57-58). Moreover, an almost annual excess of new arrivals over those departing doubled and tripled populations of most established cities between 1840 and 1850. Crowding in settled areas swelled. By 1850 there were 135.6 persons per acre in New York, while 82.7 in Boston(Chudacoff 59).

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I would like to compare New York City with Charleston, South Carolina because it was the only city which had higher number of slaves in proportion to urban population than New York at the end of 18^th century. The great number of slaves in Charleston was caused by expansion of cotton production, during the Antebellum period, which relied heavily on slave labor.

Both cities were seaports, so in most cases that was the first stop for the enslaved people who arrived to the United States. Life of the busy Charleston seaport provide unique opportunists, which were not available to people who worked on plantations. In New York as well as Charleston, slaves could “enjoy” urban life mostly because they live away from their masters supervision. They had obligation only to bring certain amount of money they made.

While slavery in New York starts to decreasing in early 1800s due to Gradual Emancipation Law, Charleston kept people enslaved for much longer period. According to New York Historical Society in 1828 “most New York slaves had already been freed.” In contrary, in 1856, Charleston’s city ordinance prohibited the practice of public auctions of slaves which initiated opening of special sales room, yards and marts. One of them was called The Old Slave Mart and “when sales were held in the shed, slaves stood on auction tables, three feet high and ten feet long, placed lengthwise so slave owners could pass by them during the auction” (nps.gov.) Slaves auction at the Old Slave Marts ends in 1862. This huge time disproportion, shows how slavery institution were approached differently in different parts in the county.

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Barnum’s American Museum was located at the corner of Broadway and Ann Street in New York, from 1841 to 1865. The museum was mysteriously burnt at that time and the Lost museum was recreated to have people in modern time to visit and experience culture in the 19th century through website.  The museum offered both strange, and educational attractions.

Barnum opened his museum  to create a place where families could go for wholesome, affordable entertainment, but his success drew from the fact that he knew how to entice an audience. At its peak, the museum was open fifteen hours a day and had as many as 15,000 visitors a day. The museum was a spectacular place for people coming to enjoy it in 19th century.  People came to this place with their families and socialize with other people.  The cultural history of New York was people gathered in one place and watch other people’s show and share their opinions with each other while they were exploring the museum.

In my opinion, the strength about the website as a historical tool like Lost museum is that it helps people to experience and have more understanding about the historical facts that were really exist and greatly affected people but been destroyed. The weakness was it was mimicking the historical event, the accuracy would be affected.

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The museum’s archives have information ranging from President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination to the frontier out west to the civil rights movement. After exploring this museum my interest was most captured on the reform movement specifically with alcohol.

During the 19th century, to deter drinking and intoxication, cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia put on melodramas of an intoxicated person that is tempted by alcohol, and his life eventually going on a spiral downwards until he can chooses to reform. The Drunkard was one play that was so successful in Boston, in 1849 it debuted at Barnum’s American Museum in New York. An image representing this “alcohol induced wickedness” is from Ten Nights in a Bar Room. Temperance was not just a political debate but it was a moral dilemma facilitated in such melodramas, songs, conventions and parades. This inspiration came from the evangelical Christians who promoted moral reform.

I believe that the Saloons and the drinking culture in 19th century America was a chief source of entertainment. The fact that some spectators of these plays would go to the nearest saloon during intermission to drink, and then come back to watch the second act shows the difficulty in promoting temperance.

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The Barnum’s American Museum was the popular attraction in 19th century New York City. P.T.Barnum purchased this museum from John Scudder in 1841. By 1850 he had greatly influence on the mid-19th century popular culture. The museum was burned down at the end of the Civil War. In this lost museum, you can find exotic animals from around the world, a number of “human curiosities” and many different wonders. Barnum used different kinds of innovative ways to dazzle the audiences. The museum displayed automata that imitated human and animal behavior and lantern slide shows, cosmoramas, and panoramas that presented images in new ways. The museum foreshadowed the commercial culture and pop culture in the United States. The museum is not only a place for entertainment, it also promoted the education on natural science in its animal exhibition, included historical context in its paintings and wax figures, and temperance reform and Shakespear dramas in its “Lecture Room”. Through adding educational value into its exhibitions, Barnum avoided to offend the religiously inclined. The Barnum’s American Museum was a single place where the people from different classes, immigrant, tourists, and residents, men and women could gather. It reflected the diversity of the American population at that time. However, in order to reinforce the white identities of museum patrons, african americans were only allowed in the museum on a limited basis. It was a key site for the antebellum articulation of whiteness. In addition, many of the exhibits in the museum reflected the emerging political and social crises that led to secession and Civil War.

The website has re-constructed the Barnum’s American Museum. We could explore the museum in a 3-D interactive environment. In my opinion, this website is pretty good as a historical tool but it would be better if it could allow us to check the museum in full-screen. Also, the website should add a side bar so that it could provide us more historical context and background information when we are navigating the museum. It would be more convenient too if the website has an audio guide.

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The Lost Museum provides a very informative source to understand the 19^th century of America. The website is not only about one aspect. It includes American history and the entertainment of 19^th century. The best part of this museum is provides a huge numbers of picture, animation and copies of old document. It makes this virtual museum feels like I’m walking into an actual museum.

In the Waxwork room on second floor, I find some information about automaton. The 19^th century is an industrialized age. The time before the advent motion picture and electronic devices become popular. Automaton was the most advance technology entertainment at that time. In that period of time automaton has been largely produced for different purposes. One of the usages is entertainment. People fascinated in advance technology and like to see different automaton perform. In the picture below show an Automaton Chess Player. It was the most famous automaton of all time. The reason why it is so famous is because it is not only automaton chess playerimitated human behavior. It appeared to be a thinking machine to make the best decision and win chess experts and European royals. It fascinates audiences about how its operation.

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The tour of The Lost Museum was a very informative experience. I didn’t really know what to expect when I entered, but as I progressed and explored all the three floors I came out with a decent sense of the history of New York City. It wasn’t really like the museums nowadays, but it had a very good feel of what a typical 19th century museum would be like.

The one thing I found that was attention grabbing was the presentation on “The Great Fires of New York City.” The American Revolution ended with a fire in the city destroying many buildings and injuring people. Many more fires followed till the mid 1800s. The firefighters were the main heroes in these situations. They had the hardest, most dangerous jobs. Until the late 1800s, being a firefighter was voluntary, but after the Barnum Museum burned in the fire the legislature made changes and firefighters were then paid.

In addition to the presentation on the fires in NYC, I thought the portrayal of what entertainment was like in NYC in the past was very interesting too. Nowadays, entertainment means tv, movies, sports, etc. In the 1700 and 1800s, I learned that entertainment for them mainly were plays that acted out domestic dramas. Many people went and watched people perform live on stage for entertainment, for example “The Drunkard or the Fallen Saved.”

With its strengths, the museum came with weaknesses as well. The museum had very small floors. It could use addition of floors to spread things out and inform people more about the history of NYC. Also, some of the information was very vague. Many things could have been explained more for a better understanding.

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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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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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Ad for whales and hippopotamus

The Lost Museum shows many exotic and bizarre things that entertains people in 19th century in New York city. It also reminds me of Ripley’s Believe IT or Not. For Barnum, who is an American entertainer and business man, his museum is one of remarkable achievement of entertainment culture of the  United States. One of objects in the Lost Museum that grabs my attention is the advertisement flier of wales and hippopotamus. In 19th century, there were no zoos or other place that people could go and see gigantic or nonnative animals. At this point, in 1861, Barnum shows two live white whales to the public in his American museum. It was a great sensational event that was the beginning of not only a common zoo but also circus.

This 3D museum is a great tool that makes a motivation to learn each object of the history. Even though I had so much fun with touring the Lost Museum, I felt little uncomfortable with the screen size that is a tiny small window view. Other than this, I think it is good experience to know more American entertainment system.

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This museum website is pretty interesting. I say that one would just have to take their time exploring this site, I didn’t find it hard to navigate and I would definitely tell my friends to check it out for themselves when they have a chance.

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Fire lecture film ironic since museum was burnt down

When I first visited “The Lost Museum” I got bored and I was not interested. Truthfully, the ground floor did not really capture my attention. So, I decided to move up to the second floor and check out if there was something more entertaining. I was impressed based on what I saw on the second and third floor. I was also surprised to see that this museum was different. It actually had a wide variety of exhibits ranging from those that dealt with history, science, and entertainment. The lecture film about fire caught my attention. I thought it was a little funny and ironic that this museum included a lecture film about fire as both Iranistan (Barnum’s mansion) and Barnum’s American Museum burned down. It was also interesting to see the amounts of fires that destroyed New York City and how fires were such a big problem for the city of New York.

“The Lost Museum” showed me something very important about entertainment in 19th century NYC; that it is not much different than entertainment today. The “freak show” aspect of the museum reminded me of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum in Manhattan. The wax figures in the waxworks room on the second floor were similar to Madame Tussauds wax museum also in Manhattan. Many people in New York City visit both of these museums for entertainment purposes probably the same way others visited The Barnum Museum in New York City in the 19th century.

I thought the interactive aspect of this website was a very effective tool to choose to include. It makes the visitors feel like they are in a actual museum. It is as if they are able to walk through it, move up levels and it keeps your attention and interest. The strength of this website is its ability to depict a form of entertainment in the 19th century and show how similar it is to forms of entertainment today. It also informs the visitors of the website about several different historical facts such as the assault on Charles Sumner by Preston S. Brooks (which actually happened). In my opinion, I feel they should have attempted to make the ground floor more interesting or for it to contain more interesting facts as it would impress the viewers and keep  them in the website to continue o to the other floors so they could learn more.

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Half fish, half human (is it possible?)

The lost Museum created by Barnun in the 19th century

I think that Barnun’s entertaiment in the 19th Century was original for the time. He was trying to combine what he thought about American History and a Freak show at the same time. Let’s be real, what is that fish thing in the picture above. He had a collection of birds and beasts living in the same cage happily that is odd. Besides I believe that if one went missing he replaced it right away. What I really liked a lot was the “Glass Steam Engine” even though, there is no clear picture of it, from an angle it looks amazing. The museum also have a small theater where there was different types of shows.

The museum tried to entertain and educate with exhibits on natural history, American history, and with attractions of enormous nature. What shocked me was that everyone was allowed to enter to the museum with the exception of African Americans until the Civil War. New Yorkers of diverse ethnic, gender, and class identities mingled in the museum’s shared cultural space. People likes entertainment of all types and shapes and this shows it.

One of the strengths of the museum website as a historical tools is that this museum was real. It entertain people in the 19th century. The main weakness is that most of the pictures that are available to see doesn’t have any type of description so people like me doesn’t know who they are or what they did in history.

Maria Leon

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The lost museum is a perfect place for knowing important information about the history of New York City in the 19^th century. When I went inside the museum through website music was playing for a short time which was interesting. There are pictures which signify the history of New York City culture in that period. While exploring I found a poster which promoted museum as an educational place. Barnum promises an attraction that is “as amusing as it is instructive”. The Drunkard is one of the most perfect and real pictures of life ever placed before the public. The Drunkard was written in 1844 by William H. Smith. The Drunkard, or, The Fallen Saved is presented with the moral message of temperance. This poster gives step by step and in detail about drinking alcohol. The Drunkard drew large audiences and helped Barnum attract “respectable” middle class women to his museum in an era when theatre attendance had been the sole province of working-class men. At the end of the poster instructions are given that intoxicated drinks are not allowed inside the museum.

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