Fiji mermaid
A composite of monkey and fish exhibited as a mummified mermaid.
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The Fiji mermaid was a constructed object made from a juvenile monkey's torso and head sewn to a fish's back half.[1] It was exhibited in sideshows as the mummified body of a half-mammal, half-fish creature.[1] P. T. Barnum displayed the original at his American Museum in New York in 1842.[1]
Quick Facts
- Field
- Sideshow hoax
- Known for
- Exhibited as a mummified mermaid by P. T. Barnum in 1842
- Origin
- Believed to be manufactured commercially in Japan
- Material
- Torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Its mouth was wide open with teeth bared, and its right hand was against its right cheek.[1] In 1822, Samuel Barrett Edes, an American sea captain, acquired the mermaid from Japanese sailors for $6,000.[2] During 1822, the mermaid was put on show at the Turf Coffee-house on St. James's Street in London.[3] Moses Kimball of the Boston Museum purchased the mermaid from Captain Edes' son in 1842.[4]
Barnum paid Kimball $12.50 each week to lease the creature.[5] To create publicity, Barnum arranged for an associate to send unsigned letters to newspapers claiming that "Dr. J. Griffin" had captured the object in South America.[5] The mermaid is no longer extant, probably destroyed in one of the fires that damaged portions of Barnum's collections.[1]
What the cited sources add
The Live Science account states the Feejee Mermaid was the most famous of several fake mermaids exhibited during the 19th century.[6] According to Jan Bondeson, the Feejee Mermaid was probably made from an orangutan and a salmon.[6] Steven C. Levi suspected the mermaid was created in the early 1800s by a Japanese fisherman as a joke.[6] The mermaid was instrumental in Barnum's success as a master showman.[6]
After Commodore Matthew Perry opened trade with Japan in 1853, many more fake mermaids appeared.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Fiji mermaid" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Levi, "P. T. Barnum and the Feejee Mermaid", Western Folklore, April 1977, p. 149–158; Boese, Alex (2014). "The Feejee Mermaid."; Nickell, "Secrets of the Sideshows", University Press of Kentucky, 2005, p. 292–293, 333–335; Levi, "P. T. Barnum and the Feejee Mermaid", Western Folklore, April 1977, p. 149–158 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Fiji mermaid" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Levi, "P. T. Barnum and the Feejee Mermaid", Western Folklore, April 1977, p. 149–158; Barnum, "Struggles and Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum", American News Company, 1871, p. 129–130; Levi, "P. T. Barnum and the Feejee Mermaid", Western Folklore, April 1977, p. 149–158; Altick, "The Shows of London", Harvard University Press, 1978, p. 302–303 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Fiji mermaid" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barnum, "Struggles and Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum", American News Company, 1871, p. 129–130; Altick, "The Shows of London", Harvard University Press, 1978, p. 302–303; Altick, "The Shows of London", Harvard University Press, 1978, p. 302–303; Patten, "George Cruikshank's Life, Times and Art: Volume 1, 1792–1835", Rutgers University Press, 1992, p. 237; Webster, "The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature", 1891, p. 44–45 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Fiji mermaid" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barnum, "Struggles and Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum", American News Company, 1871, p. 129–130; Altick, "The Shows of London", Harvard University Press, 1978, p. 302–303; Barnum, "Struggles and Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum", American News Company, 1871, p. 129–130; "The Feejee Mermaid Archive", The Lost Museum (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Fiji mermaid" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Zipp, Yvonne (August 2011). "P.T. Barnum’s Women." p. 2 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Szalay, "The Feejee Mermaid: Early Barnum Hoax", Live Science, September 9, 2016. facts only, no text reused. livescience.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Fiji mermaid (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Mermaids
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Fiji mermaid (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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