Dime museum

thumb|upright=2|"The New Fake Museums"1889 cartoon suggesting that some dime museums were little more than scams

Dime museums were establishments that grew in popularity starting from 1870 that were used to display freak show performers, human anatomy exhibitions, dioramas, oddities, and moral lectures to the general public. These institutions peaked in popularity at the end of the 19th century all throughout the United States. Designed as centers for entertainment and moral education for the working class (lowbrow), the museums were distinctly different from upper middle class cultural events (highbrow). In urban centers like New York City, where many immigrants settled, dime museums were popular and cheap entertainment. The social trend reached its peak during the Progressive Era (c. 1890–1920). Although lowbrow entertainment, they were the starting places for the careers of many notable vaudeville-era entertainers, including Harry Houdini, Lew Fields, Joe Weber, the Griffin Sisters, and Maggie Cline.

History

Dime museums arose during a unique time in American history. Urban areas were becoming more economically and racially diverse. The new working and middle class needed new forms of entertainment due to increased leisure time from advances in labor production. Dime museums became a popular form of mass entertainment.

Dime museums were not strictly for a specific group since they were open to anyone who could afford the entrance fee. They were a place where people could enjoy wild entertainment while also learning due to the educational front these museums displayed. Dime museums eventually fell out of style once other forms of entertainment began to rise in popularity. Amusement parks, higher-quality films, and vaudeville (a form of theatrical entertainment). These forms of entertainment were refreshing to audiences who had grown accustomed to contents within dime museums. By World War I, dime museums existed only as memory.

San Francisco

One of the longest running dime museums in San Francisco was the Pacific Museum of Anatomy and Natural Science.

Baltimore

In Baltimore, Maryland, Peale's Museum is credited as one of the first serious museums in the country. This type of attraction was re-created in the American Dime Museum in 1999, which operated for eight years before closing permanently and auctioning off its exhibits in late February 2007.

Boston

Kimball's Museum and Austin & Stones Museum in Scollay Square were both well-known attractions, the former having a friendly connection to, and sometimes competition with, P. T. Barnum. Barnum and Moses Kimball even shared "Fee Gee Mermaids" on a regular basis.

Cincinnati

Both John James Audubon and sculptor Hiram Powers produced displays for the Western Museum, organized by Dr Daniel Drake in 1818 and continued by Joseph Dorfeuille. "Satan and his Court" wax figures with moving parts and glowing eyes are typical of these displays.

New Orleans

thumb|1885 advertisement for Robinson's Dime Museum and Theatre

On Canal Street, "Eugene Robinson's Museum and Theater" featured entertainment on the hour and also presented some of its attractions on a nearby riverboat. The common promotion gimmick of a brass band at the front entrance of these Dime Museums featured some of the earliest documented traditional jazz; Robinson's riverboat museum also hired Papa Jack Laine.

New York City

thumb|Advertisement for Dime Museum, [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, 1903]]

P. T. Barnum purchased Scudder's Dime Museum in 1841 and transformed it into one of the more popular single cultural sites that has existed, Barnum's American Museum. Together, P.T. Barnum and Moses Kimball introduced the so-called "Edutainement", which was a moralistic education realized through sensational freak shows, theater and circus performances, and many other means of entertainment. The first incarnation "American Museum" on Ann Street burned down on 13 July, 1865. It was relocated further up Broadway, but this venue too, fell victim to fire on 3 March, 1868.

For many years in the basement of the Playland Arcade in Times Square in New York City, Hubert's Museum featured acts such as sword swallower Lady Estelene, Congo The Jungle Creep, a flea circus, a half-man half-woman Alberto Alberta, and magicians such as Earl "Presto" Johnson. This museum was documented in photography by Diane Arbus. It was located at 150 West Madison Street, east of Halsted.

In 1883 they opened a new one at 150 S. Clark Street, near Madison (now 10 South Clark Street) and a third one at 150 W. Madison, opposite Union street.