This section provides users with resources that annotate and elaborate on exhibits in Barnum's American Museum. These resources include images and written accounts from the antebellum period that illuminate how the exhibits were tied to important contemporary issues and events. There are also references for what historians and other scholars subsequently thought about the exhibits' significance and meaning.

The Lost Museum is still a work in progress. When completed, materials in the Archive will be fully searchable. Additional resources, such as essays by leading scholars, will be available (supplementing the bibliographical listings and summaries currently provided).

 




The Barnum Museum Archive

1. The "Happy Family" Archive

2. The "FeJee Mermaid" Archive

3. The "Swedish Nightingale" Archive

4. The "Baby Show" Archive

5. The "Belle of Richmond" Archive

6. The "Nova Scotia Giantess" Archive

7. The "Star of the East" Archive

 8. The "Phrenology" Archive

9. The "Temperance" Archive

10. The "1864 Conspiracy" Archive

11. The "Joice Heth" Archive