Themes in American History

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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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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