Dime Museum - New York City

New York City

P.T. Barnum purchased Scudder's Dime Museum in 1841, and transformed it into one of the popular single cultural sites that has ever existed. It was called the "American Museum". P.T. Barnum and Charles Willson Peale and his sons introduced the so-called "Edutainement" which was a moralistic education realized through sensational freakshows, theater and circus performances, and many other means of entertainment. The first incarnation "American Museum" on Anne Street, burned down in 1865. It was relocated further up Broadway, but this venue too, fell victim to fire.

For many years in the basement of the Playland Arcade in Times Square in New York City, Hubert's Museum featured acts such as sword swallower Lady Estelene, Congo The Jungle Creep, a flea circus, a half-man half-woman, and magicians such as Earl "Presto" Johnson. This museum was documented in photography by Diane Arbus. Later, in Times Square, mouse pitchman Tommy Laird opened a dime museum that featured Tisha Booty "the Human Pin Cushion, and several magicians including Tommy Laird, Lou Lancaster, Criss Capehart, Dorothy Dietrich, Magician Dick Brooks, and others.