In 1842, American promoter and showman P. T. Barnum, introduced his first major hoax: a creature with the body of a monkey and the tail of a fish known as the "Feejee" mermaid. By the time Barnum was exhibiting the ‘mermaid’, it already had had a long life, and mythology. In one version of its origin, in 1822 an American captain named Samuel Barrett Eades rescued the crew of a Dutch merchant ship, aboard the ship was the mermaid, the Dutch had bought it from Japanese sailors, who claimed they had caught it. Eades bought the mermaid from the Dutch, and took it to England, where he set up a display in a London coffeehouse, naming it the "Remarkable Stuffed Mermaid"; where it was an instant success, the entrance fee of a one shilling happily paid. For the next 20 years the mermaid vanishes from history until it reappears again in the early 1840’s, where it is bought from Eades son by Moses Kimball, the proprietor of the Boston Museum; and friend of P.T. Barnum. Two years later in July 1842, newspapers announced the arrival in New York of Dr. J. Griffin, a member of the British Lyceum of Natural History, who had brought a mermaid which was caught in the Feejee Islands in the South Pacific, to be shown to the press. Of course the mermaid was the same one bought by Kimball, and Dr. J. Griffin, and the British Lyceum of Natural History, were both inventions of Barnum’s in order to create a spectacle for his exhibition of the mermaid. All images are based upon historical depictions of mermaids from the 16th century to Barnum’s exhibition in the 1840’s. They are for sale on the mythology section of the website. www.ofgraveconcern.com/mythololgy Follow @ofgraveconcern for a new macabre tale every Monday, and posts throughout the week of the gothic, strange and macabre. #barnumandbailey #barnum #phineastaylorbarnum #hoax #feejeemermaid #mermaidart #mermaidartwork #mermaidartist #coffeehouses #bostonmuseum #naturalhistory #naturalhistorymuseum #cryptid #cryptids #macabrehistory #mermaidhistory #interestingfacts #historylovers #circus #merman #mermaid #museum #interestingfinds #interestingarts #ofgraveconcern #ptbarnum #feejee #folklore #folkloreart #historical https://www.instagram.com/p/CN2oIbpHh9W/?igshid=1mhok3crjmy7b
