Revisiting P. T. Barnum’s American Museum

Abstract: P. T. Barnum’s American Museum opened its doors in 1841. By 1865, it had expanded to six floors of attractions that included human curiosities, waxworks, aquaria, automatons, portraits, theatrical productions, live animals, weapons, taxidermy, and countless other novelties. By its final year, forty-one million patrons had visited the American Museum: nearly six million more than the total population of the United States at the conclusion of the Civil War. This forum explores the various ways in which audiences perceived and misperceived the attractions they encountered at the museum. By analyzing instances in which official narratives crack, dissolve, or bend, the essays foreground the elasticity and variability of interpretation to examine what these encounters reveal about the societal tensions and collective fantasies animating the museum’s exhibits. Centering the interpretive process, this forum considers what we can and cannot know about the American Museum and its enduring cultural impact.