Black and white broadside advertising events at Barnum's Museum on New Year's Day, January 1, 1862. Broadsides are an early form of poster, often smaller than modern day posters, and usually printed in black and white or with a minimal amount of coloring. This relatively small broadside is densely printed with information, and contains illustrations, and several titles in bold lettering. Barnum's Museum was famous for its wide variety of exhibits, including large wild animals as well as an array of performers, and displays of curiosities from around the world, promoted on this broadside as a Grand Galaxy of Novelties and Wonders. The broadside advertises "Splendid Performances nearly every hour" of a holiday fairy piece called "Ondina!" or the "Spirit of the Water." Ondina and her Bower of Beauty were a spectacular mechanical scene stated to have cost $7000 and to be unequaled by any other Fairy Production in the city--and therefore not to be missed. The broadside also features the Living Whale, the Living Hippopotamus. Among the other animals to be seen at the museum were 200 performing white rats, monster snakes, and a mammoth Grizzly Bear named Samson. The Happy Family was a well-known display of prey and predators, seemingly content with one another, the predators having been well fed prior to being placed with prey animals. Admission to the museum is noted as 25 cents for adults and 15 cents for children under 10 years of age. The best seats in Barnum's lecture room--a theater by another name--cost 15 cents extra. Included at the bottom in small type is an announcement of regular Sunday services given by the City's Christian Alliance in Barnum's lecture room at 3 p.m., which people could attend free of charge. Printed by Herald Print. Barnum's American Museum was located at the corner of Broadway and Ann Street in New York City from 1841 to 1865 when it was destroyed by a fire. Barnum then moved to 539-541 Broadway until that building, too, was destroyed by a fire in 1868. The displays in the museum ranged from dioramas of places such as Niagara falls and the American plains, to various wild animals living and stuffed, wax figure tableaux, individual performers, theatrical performances, inventions, scientific specimens, and curious artifacts. Barnum included what were called humbugs--done in the spirit of fun, unlike hoaxes--and invited the public to decide for themselves if they were genuine or not. Barnum's agents combed the world for new attractions, so that visitors could always expect to see new things. The museum's long-time superintendent was John Greenwood, who, like Barnum, hailed from Bethel, Connecticut.
