P. T. Barnum Museum
State: Connecticut
Before his death, P. T. Barnum bequeathed the sum of US$100,000 for the establishment of the structure. Completed in 1893, the building was originally called The Barnum Institute of Science and History and opened on February 18 of that year. As imagined, it originally operated as a resource library and a lecture hall, attracting such luminaries as the Wright brothers and Thomas Edison to speak.
Until being struck by a tornado on June 24, 2010, the museum featured a 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) miniature replica of a circus hand crafted by William Brinley and including 3000 hand made figures. It also included a recreation of P.T. Barnum's personal library in his former Iranistan estate and a number of other artifacts and displays of 19th Century life in Bridgeport. Also housed on the property was an exhibit devoted to Tom Thumb, one of P. T. Barnum's most famous acts. The oldest artifact owned by the museum is a 2500-year-old Egyptian mummy verified as authentic by Quinnipiac University personnel.











