Lost Museum

On July 13, 1865 P. T. Barnum’s American Museum in New York City burned down and the Lost Museum’s interactive online exhibit allows you to figure out who is responsible for the crime. Before you start the investigation, it helps to watch the video introduction or at least read this overview of the exhibit. (You can also just skip the mystery part and explore the 3-D museum). The American Social History Project at the City University of New York Graduate Center launched the site for use in the classroom and teachers can pick from a number of different activities, such as “The Path to War?,” “John Brown, Violence, and Social Change,” and “The Debate Over Women’s Roles in Public.” In addition, the Lost Museum Archive has a number of different types of primary sources available – these include those related to the “Sectional Crisis,” “Amusement Devices,” “Civil War in New York City,” and “Tom Thumb.” The essays are also important since they help put Barnum’s museum in context – see especially “Barnum’s American Museum,” Ann Fabian’s “Women in P. T. Barnum’s New York City,” and Peter G. Buckley’s “Urban Popular Culture in the Age of Barnum.” Each essay includes links to relevant primary sources. This website was produced in collaboration with the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, which created other digital history resources such as “Exploring U. S. History,” “Virginia 400,” and “Historical Thinking Matters.” You can learn more about the city in Ernest A. McKay’s The Civil War and New York City (1990).