The "FeJee Mermaid" was originally brought to the American Museum in 1842 "at a most extraordinary expense" for the evaluation of a "discerning public." The patchwork creature was one of Barnum's most outlandish and popular hoaxes, appealing to Americans' fascination with puzzles and enjoyment in testing illusion.

Illustrations from contemporary newspapers and magazines and a photograph of the "real" American Museum attraction.

Illustrations from the New York Sunday Herald and the Charleston Courier
Image of actual FeJee Mermaid in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Press coverage and other contemporary observations about the "FeJee Mermaid."

Scholarly views about the meaning and significance of the "FeJee Mermaid."

Kenneth S. Greenberg, "The Nose, the Lie, and the Duel," in Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as A Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).

Jan Bondeson, "The Feejee Mermaid," in The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999).

James W. Cook, "The Feejee Mermaid and the Market Revolution," in The Arts of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).