Description

In 1842, a curious specimen of a 'mermaid' beguiled visitors at Barnum's American Museum in New York City. An elaborate fake, the Fiji (or Feejee) Mermaid was the quintessential 'humbug' in dime museums across the United States.

• The Legacy of Dime Museums and the Freakshow : How the Past Impacts the Present – AASLH
• The Mead's Mermaid | 4/2017 | Amherst College
• Buxton Mermaid origins probed at University of Lincoln
• How 13th-Century “Mermaid Bones” Came to Be Displayed in a Japanese Temple
• P.T. Barnum & the Feejee Mermaid
• The Feejee Mermaid: Early Barnum Hoax | Live Science
• Fiji Mermaid, Original Fiji Mermaid Display, Oddities, Curiosities - Oddities For Sale has unique
• Centaur of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
• Blog: Margaret Cooter - Dime Museums
• The Dime Museum - The Atlantic
• Dime Museum Freaks | The San Francisco Examiner, 17 May 1899
• How a Fake Monster Creeped into our Museums | Hyperallergenic

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Artwork: Brittany Schall Music: "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by Kevin MacLeod

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