For nearly 30 years before he entered the circus business, P.T. Barnum owned and managed Barnum’s American Museum in New York City. Featuring nearly 500,000 attractions, the American Museum was a museum, zoo, lecture hall, theater and treasure house of marvels of nature that served as a central site in the development of American popular culture.

Barnum loved nothing more than joining entertainment and education. Late in life, providing his own land, funds, collections and expertise, he conceived of his next and final museum project, the Barnum Institute of Science and History. Despite his investments, he did not live to see it completed, approving plans for the building’s construction only three weeks before his death on April 7, 1891. Costing some $85,000 to construct, the building opened on February 18, 1893 and has been part of downtown Bridgeport ever since. Today, building is known as simply the Barnum Museum, and is led by executive director Kathleen Maher. The museum is the leading authority on P.T. Barnum’s life and work, and contains more than 60,000 artifacts relating to Barnum, Bridgeport and 19th century America. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Kathleen Maher will talk about Barnum's museums, past, present, and future, and his enduring legacy of growing curiosity, creativity and confidence through instructive entertainment. More details can be found here: https://www.thepealecenter.org/events/barnums-museums-past-present-and-f...

Kathleen's talk will be livestreamed. Sign up to get details on how to see it online: https://www.thepealecenter.org/subscribe/

This talk is being presented in conjunction with HUMBUG: The Great P.T. Barnum Seance. Book your tickets to see HUMBUG after the talk or at any time through April 20th: http://barnumseance.com/

About Kathleen Maher, Executive Director, The Barnum Museum
Ms. Maher has over 29 years’ experience working at museums that are additionally recognized as National Historic Sites. Throughout her career, she has envisioned, authored and implemented numerous exhibitions and programs that explore a variety of 19th-century social historical themes. Her topics of knowledge range from social impacts of the American Civil War to the transformation of entertainment in 19th century America. Ms. Maher is considered a leading authority on P.T. Barnum’s history, and speaks extensively on Barnum and related subjects throughout the United States.

Access Info

The Peale Center has an accessible entrance to its ground floor via its garden entrance on Watchhouse Alley to the left of the Peale building at 225 Holliday Street. Unfortunately, until renovations are complete, the Peale does not have and elevator so access to its upper floors are by stairs only. In the likely event that the audience for this talk exceeds the capacity of the Peale's groundfloor rooms, the talk will be held in the building's third floor lecture hall and will be livestreamed to the ground floor for anyone who does not want to climb the stairs. Ms. Maher will be available in person on the ground floor after her talk to answer questions in person at a light reception.

More information on visiting the Peale can be found here: https://www.thepealecenter.org/visiting-the-peale/