Image, New York Public Library.

On this day 150 years ago, July 13, 1865, Barnum’s American Museum burned to the ground.  Located at Broadway and Ann Street in Lower Manhattan,

The museum had been owned by showman P.T. Barnum since 1841 and featured wholesome family entertainment, including a zoo, museum, lecture hall, theater, and freak show. Most of the animals, including the beluga whales in a second-floor tank, perished in the fire, but a few survived. The popular Ned the learned seal, was among the survivors, as was a bear that was lowered to safety by a fireman and rope.

The museum was open as much as fifteen hours a day, six days a week, and drew up to 15,000 visitors a day to pay the 25 cent admission fee.

The fire was among the most spectacular in New York history. A virtual museum supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, recreates many of the spectacles of Barnum’s original version.

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