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133:, contending that "Dr. J. Griffin" had an object which he had caught in South America. Griffin was actually being impersonated by Levi Lyman, one of Barnum's associates. To keep the plan working, Griffin checked in to a Philadelphia hotel, then showed the mermaid to the landlord as a thanks for his hospitality. The landlord was so intrigued that he begged Griffin to show it to some of his friends, many of whom were editors.
175:'s Sideshow by the Seashore, and Bobby Reynolds' traveling sideshow all lay claim to the title, but according to Nickell's opinion, none of them are to be believed. He also describes an update of the tradition that uses an elaborate system to project the image of a live woman into a fishbowl, giving the appearance that she is only an inch or two long. He relates the story of a performer who was smoking a
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125:. Barnum had a naturalist examine it who would not attest to its authenticity. Nevertheless, Barnum believed that the relic would draw the public to the museum. Kimball remained the creature's sole owner, while Barnum leased it for $ 12.50 a week. Barnum generated publicity for the object by having an agent send anonymous letters to New York newspapers from
83:
Barnum, in his autobiography, described the mermaid as "an ugly dried-up, black-looking diminutive specimen, about 3 feet long. Its mouth was open, its tail turned over, and its arms thrown up, giving it the appearance of having died in great agony," a significant departure from traditional
27:
63:. The original had fish scales with animal hair superimposed on its body and pendulous breasts on its chest. The mouth was wide open with its teeth bared. The right hand was against the right cheek, and the left tucked under its lower left jaw. This mermaid was supposedly caught near the
200:
magazine, in an article written by special effects expert and stop-motion animator Alan
Friswell. Rather than building the figure with fish and monkey parts, Friswell used papier mache and modelling putty, sealed with wallpaper paste, and with doll's hair glued to the scalp.
95:, Dutch Indonesia. Either way, the mermaid is believed to be one of many being manufactured commercially in Japan, by fishermen with a sense of humor as well as profit-mindedness. It was possibly a composite of a "blue-faced monkey and a salmon" in this case.
59:) was an object composed of the torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish. It was a common feature of sideshows where it was presented as the mummified body of a creature that was supposedly half mammal and half fish, a version of a
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Griffin traveled to New York and displayed it to a small audience, then displayed it as the Fiji
Mermaid in the concert hall for a week. It was actually only displayed for five days because Barnum had "convinced" Griffin to bring it to the
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documents several modern-day claimants to the title of Barnum's "true" original mermaid, or as he describes them, "fakes of Barnum's fake". Exhibits at
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sailors in 1822 for $ 6,000, using money from the ship's expense account. Other accounts say a captain of an
American whaler bought it for $ 5,000 in
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in her hidden chamber; the man outside was confronted by an angry patron who demanded to know how this was possible if the "mermaid" was underwater.
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in New York in 1842, but it then disappeared—likely destroyed in one of the many fires that destroyed parts of Barnum's collections.
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Barnum, P.T. (1871). Struggles and
Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum. New York: American News Company. p. 129
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141:. Barnum printed 10,000 pamphlets which described general information about mermaids and stories about his specimen in particular.
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Islands in the South
Pacific. Several replicas and variations have also been made and exhibited under similar names and pretexts.
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The mermaid was displayed in London in 1822, advertised in a publication by J. Limbird in the
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The
Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature
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The Banff Merman, similar to a Fiji mermaid, on display at the Indian
Trading Post
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A guide to constructing a Fiji mermaid appeared in the
November 2009 issue of
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https://books.google.com/books?id=5d3BJvgwNykC&q=batavia&pg=PA302
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A merman constructed out of wood carving, and parts of monkey and fish,
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American sea captain Samuel
Barrett Edes bought Barnum's "mermaid" from
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in 1842, and he brought it to New York City that summer to show it to
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Struggles and
Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum
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The arts of deception : playing with fraud in the age of Barnum
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Captain Edes' son took possession of the mermaid and sold it to
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563:. American Social History Project/Center for Media Learning.
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George Cruikshank's Life, Times and Art: Volume 1, 1792-1835
622:. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. pp. 36–63.
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Zipp, Yvonne (August 2011). "P.T. Barnum’s Women." p. 2
661:. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
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418:. New York: American News Company. pp. 129–130.
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Analysis of a Fiji mermaid from the Horniman Museum
443:"Chapter 22. Life and Death in the Animal Kingdom"
84:depictions of mermaids as attractive creatures.
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683:. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.
449:, Harvard University Press, pp. 302–303,
16:Fake mummified body of a half-monkey half-fish
1337:Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
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332:Boese, Alex (2014). "The Feejee Mermaid."
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378:"The Feejee Mermaid: Early Barnum Hoax"
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23:P. T. Barnum's Feejee mermaid from 1842
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700:P.T. Barnum : legend and the man
285:"P. T. Barnum and the Feejee Mermaid"
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376:Szalay, Jessie (September 9, 2016).
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1611:There's a sucker born every minute
1054:James Randi Educational Foundation
479:"Chapter 15. Thorough-bred Artist"
388:from the original on March 6, 2021
139:American Museum of Natural History
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567:from the original on 26 July 2004
1039:Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
533:from the original on 2022-07-02
519:(1891). "Mermaids and Mermen".
499:from the original on 2022-07-02
315:from the original on 2020-06-25
1:
993:Reportedly haunted locations:
557:"The Feejee Mermaid Archive"
1638:Hoaxes in the United States
1412:Annie Jones (bearded woman)
832:Electronic voice phenomenon
283:Levi, Steven (April 1977).
168:Ripley's Believe It or Not!
31:Another "mermaid", made of
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1541:The Greatest Show on Earth
1457:Millie and Christine McKoy
1372:Captain George Costentenus
131:Charleston, South Carolina
71:exhibited the original in
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1563:Barnum's American Museum
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681:Secrets of the Sideshows
351:Secrets of the Sideshows
159:Secrets of the Sideshows
73:Barnum's American Museum
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1129:Out-of-body experiences
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725:The Feejee Mermaid Hoax
657:James W. Cook. (2001).
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246:. 2019. Archived from
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1182:Cognitive dissonance
1177:Begging the question
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698:A. H. Saxon (1995).
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1362:Circassian beauties
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1074:Scientific literacy
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127:Montgomery, Alabama
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1452:Maximo and Bartola
1342:Anna Haining Bates
942:Spirit photography
892:Paranormal fiction
817:Demonic possession
619:The Feejee mermaid
322:– via JSTOR.
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1247:Uncertainty
972:Telekinesis
922:Psychometry
807:Conjuration
677:Joe Nickell
646:|work=
163:Joe Nickell
1627:Categories
1588:Nancy Fish
1437:Jenny Lind
1402:Joice Heth
1207:Groupthink
1027:Skepticism
962:Stone Tape
867:Mediumship
822:Demonology
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537:2022-07-02
503:2022-07-02
319:2020-09-02
254:2019-08-23
227:References
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1521:(musical)
1347:Eli Bowen
1044:Debunking
977:Telepathy
827:Ectoplasm
797:Cold spot
767:Astrology
648:ignored (
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392:April 23,
177:cigarette
110:in 1822.
1643:Mermaids
1212:Hypnosis
1119:Hypnosis
847:Forteana
837:Exorcism
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309:1498966
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862:Magic
305:JSTOR
1049:Hoax
772:Aura
704:ISBN
685:ISBN
663:ISBN
650:help
624:ISBN
573:2014
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