Themes in American History

When I’m browsing in the Lost Museum on the website, I’m trying to look for a historical character. On the 2nd floor picture gallery, there are many pictures of historical characters. I’m interested in one of the picture —-John Brown. The abolitionist John Brown was one of the most controversial person of the 19th century.  There are several incidents that influence him a lot. Firstly During his childhood year, his father explained to him that slavery was a sin against God. Also, he witnessed the beating of slave when he visited a farm.  Moreover, in 1837, Brown attended a meeting in Ohio in memory of Elijah Lovejoy, an abolitionist newspaper editor who had been killed in Illinois. At the meeting, Brown raised his hand and vowed that he would destroy slavery. Those incidents really motivate him to abolish slavery.  In 1859 he led a party of 21 men in a successful attack on the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry. Brown hoped that his action would encourage slaves to join his rebellion, enabling him to form an emancipation army. Two days later the armory was stormed by Robert E. Lee and a company of marines. Brown and six men barricaded themselves in an engine-house, and continued to fight until Brown was seriously wounded and two of his sons had been killed. John Brown was tried and convicted of insurrection, treason and murder. He was executed on 2nd December, 1859. After his execution on December 2, 1859, Brown became a martyr to those opposed to slavery. And the controversy over his actions and his fate helped stoke the tensions that pushed the United States to the brink of Civil War. Americans either regarded him as a noble hero or a dangerous fanatic.

The Lost Museum is really informative which contains a lot images and animation.  If you browse the museum, we will find that the museum is really categorized. Actually, the ground floor is mainly about the American cultural history. The second floor is mainly about entertainment and historical character. Although the lose museum is virtual, it looks realistic. The Lost Museum makes the visitors that they are really browsing in a real museum. When the visitors keep browsing in the museum, I think they can definitely expand their knowledge about 19^th century of American history.  However, some of the pictures and words are too small. The visitors may have difficulty to read.

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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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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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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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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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The “Lost Museum” website really surprises me a lot as I explore it. I have never seen a museum website like this that gives virtual experiences to its views. In real life, the actual P. T. Barnum’s American Museum does not exist anymore, but the website is a continuation of its missions and spirits. Barnum’s American Museum was considered as a key institution that led to the development of nineteenth-century urban culture. But it was mysteriously burn down in 1865. The website is not complicated, and the instructions are very clear. On the right side, there are floor maps of the actual museum. The screen is right in the middle, and you just have to move your mouse around and click. It is very simple and self-explanatory.

I think one of the strengths of using this website as a historical tool is providing people with different forms of historical evidences. Unlike actual physical evidences, the website gives virtual evidences, which is more accessible and convenience. And the weakness is that the screen is not big enough and lack of captions for many items.

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Barnum provides viewers how entertainment was in the 19^th century. In the 21^st Century, entertainments consist of  TVs and movies, an entertainment realm where our mind can create endless ideas giving birth to stories like Harry Potter and Twilight.  But in  the 19^th Century people were not interested in endless ideas [that style of thinking gains traction during the Victorian era] but interested in the unexplained. The 19^th Century was all about observing people that were different and considered defects. Barnum was able to exploit that interest and provide showmanship for the people of New York. For example Miss Anna Swam was considered different because she was taller than an average male. In the realm of the 19^th Century this will be considered inhuman due to the majority of the population did not experienced

Eight Feet Tall

Anna Swam growth. The citizens of 19^th Century America liked that God world was being challenged. That a human can physically go beyond their limits that seemed only possible if you were Jesus himself, whom turned water into wine. So when Barnum cons the public that Joice Heth was over a hundred years old. That captured public interest that humans can live long or something abnormal is at play. Even to add on to that was her relation to George Washington. Now more people can learn about their first president from someone who lived during his time and had a connection toward him.

The Museum tells me about the Cultural history of New York City was that public was into the theatrics that allowed society to think about themselves and life. And being abnormal or defect was something not to be ashamed of but spirited due to the wide interest.

The museum was good. My opinion is the museum greatest strength if you love history is it gives you a world of our past that is so much different than today. The weakness is that the second floor was where most of entertainment was. The other floor did not have much.

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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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