The mission of The Barnum Museum is to inspire curiosity, creativity and confidence through instructive entertainment.

P.T. Barnum was many things to many people, not all of which were positive. Social norms around race, gender, disability, animal rights, and other topics were vastly different in Barnum’s 19th century. As only one example, Barnum’s journey into entertainment began with Joice Heth, an enslaved woman of African descent whom Barnum marketed as George Washington’s 161-year old nurse. His entertainments employed performers of many different backgrounds, races, and ethnicities, promoted individuals with disabilities, and told grandiose, sensationalist stories. Despite his growth and evolution as a person – he eventually joined the Connecticut legislature to advocate for Black voting rights, for example – that does not erase the harm done.

For every example in Barnum’s life that illustrated his innovative spirit, his commitment to joy, and his capacity for change, there is another that reflects the biases and failures of his era. Barnum’s actions, venues, performers, and stories involve negative depictions of and even the mistreatment of marginalized people and cultures. This was wrong then and is wrong now. The Barnum Museum is committed to telling Barnum’s story in its fullness, and during our re-imagination we will explore Barnum’s life and world with the aid of subject matter experts and members of associated communities. We aspire to equally, inclusively, and fairly present all stories associated with underrepresented populations, communities, and individuals. By learning from the past, we can create a more inclusive future.

Please continue to visit our website for periodic updates as we move through the process of re-imagination and storytelling. 

 In the meantime, for more information about the people and animals that were displayed in Barnum’s American Museum and in his traveling shows, the following publications may be of interest:

•  P.T. Barnum: America’s Greatest Showman by Philip Kunhardt et al.
• The Showman and the Slave by Benjamin Reiss
• The Arts of Deception by James Cook
• Humbug by Neil Harris
• Freak Show by Robert Bogdan
• The Circus Age by Janet Davis

 For younger readers:

• The Great and Only Barnum by Candace Fleming
• The Big, Bold, Adventurous Life of Lavinia Warren by Elizabeth Raum