QUESTION:
Why was Barnum's museum popular? In this, be as specific as possible--don't just say "because it showed people things they were interested in," or "things they didn't see every day;" or "it was interesting because people had no TVs yet." Say why you think these specific things were interesting to people at this specific time. What "nerve" did they touch?
ANSWER:
Imagine hearing that scientists saying that Bigfoot actually existed and that they had him captured and held him in a laboratory, or imagine hearing that they had found an alien spaceship on Earth. These are headlines that would spark an interest in the minds of many people. We would need proof with our own eyes to make sure what we had heard was not falsely invented. The same thing goes for the people that lived during the time period when Barnum’s American Museum was thriving. There were several factors for why Barnum's American Museum was so popular.
Word of Barnum’s museum caught fire in America. Like nowadays, it is telling a friend about a movie and how they have to go and see it. Then your friend tells another friend, and so on. Pretty soon everybody has to see the movie because it is so good. Like us today, the people who had visited the museum told other people about what they had seen, and that they had to go and visit it. Hearing about friends, relatives, and people on the street talking about the Fejee Mermaid or Tom Thumb would spark an interest in minds of the people. The museum was the first of its kind; controversial and appealing. The American public had never seen or heard of anything like this before. The people could not comprehend the fact that something like this could exist, and the only way they could make sure that something like this existed was if they saw it for themselves.
The museum challenged the public’s mind and dared them to question the credibility of Barnum. He had set up different exhibits where people could go and visit, and ask themselves if what they were looking at could be possibly real. Could it be science? Could it be artificially produced? Could it really be real? These questions were thrown out to the tourists of the museum when looking at the different exhibits and it was their own job to decide what the answer to the question could be. His mind provoking exhibits were what the people needed in a time of conflict over slavery and an inevitable war looming over their heads.
There were also some other factors that contributed to the success of the museum. Because the museum was open six days a week and fifteen hours a day, the public could visit at their convenience. This allowed the tourists to spend hours of their time pondering at the unthinkable objects being displayed before them. Barnum’s museum “…also drew a new audience that reflected the increasingly heterogeneous population of the antebellum American city. …Barnum's American Museum was a singular institution where, in one place, immigrants and native-born, working-class and middle-class, men and women, city residents and rural visitors could gather”1. Because he allowed anybody to visit his museum, it brought in a larger population of the people, which eventually grew into a huge fan base. His museum was always changing. He would also change the exhibits in the museum so he could keep the people coming back for more.
Barnum’s American Museum had a number of appealing things for the public's display which created a frenzy that everybody had to see. P.T. Barnum created a museum that opened the door for today’s imagination. He is truly the ‘father of pop culture illusionism’.
1The “Barnum Museum” Archive. 2002: 2. On-line. Internet. 5 Feb. 2003. Available: WWW: