Barnum's museum, though eccentric, displayed signs of the times; especially the Civil War. Many of its paintings and statues depicted images of Northern moral and war propaganda. For example, pictures of Abraham Lincoln are mounted throughout the museum, as well as an advertisement for the play where President Lincoln was assassinated. A few of the postings that were on display throughout the museum had pictures of war propaganda. The most notable ones were aimed at black slaves and women. One such painting had the caption, "Come and join us brothers." Another had the caption, "Heroes and Heroines of the war." Another called for, "Irish Volunteers." There are also several paintings that depict tense race relations between slaves and slave owners and between abolitionists and slave owners.

Barnum's museum appealed to America's fascination with mysteries and people's enjoyment of testing and challenging these mysteries. Barnum was very clever in understanding people's attraction to pop culture. He knew how to get and keep people's interest. He knew that the debate over the acquisition and authenticity of his mysteries were integral to the public's fascination with the mystery itself. This is why he would purposely make people aware of both sides of the argument surrounding any of his mysteries. This is especially noticeable in the debate over the famous "feejee mermaid." Barnum would purposely hint at the possibility of fraud; what he called humbug. This is why he would sometimes represent the feejee mermaid in two different forms. One was the form of a beautiful female figure the other was a more realistic fish-like representation. Furthermore, the label that describes the feejee mermaid is filled with humbug. It does not claim that the mermaid is 100% real but it claims that it might be real. It gives evidence that it could be real and it gives evidence that it could be a fraud. The label states, "who is to decide when doctors disagree?" Barnum is asking the viewer to decide for themselves if the feejee mermaid is real or not. This is simply a ploy to keep people interested. Nothing gives a topic momentum like a good debate.

Perhaps the greatest mystery surrounding the Barnum Museum is when it was burned down on July 13, 1985. On the night before the museum burned down Barnum predicted that something horrible would happen to his museum. He singles out several groups of people that would have the motive of destroying his museum. They include the Copperheads, the Abolitionist and people that work for him. Out of the suspects he lists, the Copperheads seem to have had the most incentive for burning down the museum. After all, their goal was to burn down all of New York City and destroy Northern moral. More personally, the Copperheads may have wanted to strike back at Barnum for making a mockery of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis. The Barnum Museum had a display of Jefferson Davis in the dress in which he was wearing when he was captured by Union forces. Surely the Copperheads were angered by this mockery.

Although it is a likely argument that the Confederates were responsible for the arson, it would be presumptuous to forget the trickster himself. In the speech he gives the night before the arson, Barnum purposely throws suspicion off of himself by pointing the finger at various others. Also, Barnum is conveniently away at the time of the fire. While all of the groups listed in his monologue would have reason to burn down the museum, Barnum himself could have had a hand in the catastrophe. Maybe he intended the burning of his museum to be his greatest mystery of all.