Barnum’s American Museum was a museum that was open from 1841 to 1865 in New York City. It served as a showcase for animals, artifacts, scientific instruments, and a bunch of weird and odd stuff too. It was a big part of the culture in New York, and tons of people visited the museum until it burned down.
Walt Whitman also lived in New York, and was surely a visitor to this museum. According to PBS’s website, he also interviewed P.T. Barnum for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1946. Knowing Whitman’s fascination with understanding all that lies outside himself, I would think he’d love visiting the museum. Although I’m sure a lot of things in the museum were of a sensationalist nature, I think he’s appreciate the diversity of memorabilia, artifacts, animals, and culture found in the museum. A guy like Walt could write poems for days in a spot like that, real talk.
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