By the 1860s, P.T. Barnum was one of the most well
known Americans to have created a museum which contained many mysterious,
puzzling, awkward and interesting things. Barnum's American museum
was functioning at the same time conflict was stirring between the North
and South. Slavery was the main issue and the confederates from the
South supported that issue strongly. The union forces from the North
were against slavery and thus the civil war took place later in effort
to abolish it. P.T. which is short for Phineas Taylor, grew up in
the North and taking a look into his museum, one can assume that it was
an attraction built by a person who was pro union. Although the American
museum attracted people from all over, it looks clear that Barnum was trying
to send messages through his weird, funny, and questionable exhibits.
By the looks of the intro movie at the beginning of the Lost Museum web
site, it's looks to me that the museum was burned down not by a malfunction
but purposely by someone from the South.
Many exhibits in the museum display Barnums' hate,
and humor towards the confederates from the South. For example, there
is a wax figure of a man in a plaid dress holding a pail which is supposed
to be confederate president Jefferson Davis. President Davis was
trying to evade arrest at the time he was captured by the union forces,
so in doing that he attempted to hide by putting on his wife's dress.
Barnum went to extreme measures by offering money for the exact garments
that Davis was wearing at the time he was captured. Barnum did not
succeed in getting the original clothing but he had a wax figure made of
Davis in a similar dress and displayed it in the museum as "The Belle Of
Richmond." I found many artifacts in the museum that looked like hints
or ways of expressing support for the Unionists and the abolishment of
slavery. There was an ad on the wall stating that a wax figure of
John Brown was to appear in the museum. John Brown was a man who
was responsible for raiding the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia
along with a gang of other men in an attempt to end slavery. Brown's
raid was unsuccessful and he was later executed on December 2, 1859 for
treason.
In one of the rooms there is a portrait of black
soldiers with an American flag and above the picture reads "Come And Join
Us Brothers." As soon as one walks into the museum on the front desk
are two newspaper articles that were cut out. One of the cutouts
dated November 27th, 1864 gives a very detailed explanation about how the
confederates planned on burning down most of New York City's public places
including the American museum. The other article is Letter that Barnum
wrote to the Editor of the New York Times that same day explaining that
his museum was very safe and wrote about all the safety measures his museum
was taking in order to run a safe, harmless, attraction that would keep
bringing people from all over to see rather than scare them off with the
fire threat they were given earlier. The man responsible for plotting
the fires in New York was Robert Cobb Kennedy. A wax figure of Kennedy
was placed in the museum and a description explained that he was later
caught and hanged for his horrible acts.
I believe that Barnum did not agree with slavery
because of all the many portraits and memorabilia of president Abraham
Lincoln. President Lincoln was the only president back then that
did not support slavery and on the wall are posters of the play which Lincoln
attended too and was fatally shot in the head. There is a picture
of Lincoln's murderer John Wilkes Booth next to the other pictures.
Lastly in one of the rooms lies a cabinet that displays a sort of slide
show titled "The Slave Owner Conspiracy"
and shows the current events that have occurred throughout past years.
It's crazy to know about many of the whacked out
things that existed in that museum. I think that no. 884 "The happy
family" was a very unbelievable sight. The happy family was an exhibit
that included many different types of animals that in reality does not
make sense how all the animals would get along if put in one cage together.
The cage consisted of cats, dogs, rats, guinea pigs, hawks, doves, anteaters,
owls, rabbits monkeys, roosters, raccoons, cavas, cuba rats, woodchucks,
armadillos, and an opossum. I just don't understand how Barnum trained
all those animals how to get along without eating one another. The
hawk could easily prey on the rat or guinea pig and the dog could easily
just chase the cat and kill it. Exhibits like this would just leave
the viewer clue less on how Barnum did and why he was so well known for
tricking the mind out. The Feegee mermaid which looks like a half
human, half fish looks totally freaky. It was said to be a real mermaid
from the Fiji Islands brought to the museum in 1842. It was kept
in a wooden case with glass surrounding and probably fooled many people.
In conclusion the main clue that makes me think
that the American museum was burned by the confederates is in one of the
clips where the American flag was shown in flames and also a picture of
a police grabbing a man outside. The real question is how was it
possible for the American Museum to burn down if P.T. Barnum had numerous
ways and actions to prevent it from the flames. When reading the
article he wrote to the New York Times, Barnum tricked me into thinking
his museum was Fireproof. The result proved me wrong and Barnum bringing
the end to his museum by no other way but.......a fire.