Virtual Exhibitions

This week’s “Photo of the Week” is of James W. Beardsley, the namesake of Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo.  In 1878 he donated over 100 acres of land to the city of Bridgeport in order to create Beardsley Park.  The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, famed for Central Park in New York City. During the years when Ba...

This week’s “Photo of the week” shows the entrance to Barnum’s third mansion, Waldemere. After Barnum’s first wife had died and he had remarried, his new wife expressed a desire for a new home. Likely she was uncomfortable in the mansion by the sea which was designed expressly for the woman who had come before her. In or...

This week’s “Photo of the Week” is of an unknown mother and her children. The picture was donated to the museum without any information. All we know is that the family likely lived in or near the city of Bridgeport, as their picture was taken by Montignani, a famous photographer who had a studio in Bridgeport. It’s fun to imag...

This “Photo of the Week” depicts Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish opera singer that Barnum engaged to tour across the United States. Lind’s tour began in September of 1850, and although she was already famous in Europe, in the months before her tour most Americans had never heard of her. Barnum set about to change this. He began a publ...

This week’s “Photo of the Week” is a picture of P.T. Barnum as an old man. The picture was taken in 1889 when Barnum was 79 years old, shortly before his death in 1891. It was taken during his final trip to London, where he went to do one final show before officially retiring.  He had attempted retiring many times before, after ...

This week’s “Photo of the Week” shows the sitting room at Waldemere.  The sitting room was probably one of the busiest rooms in the house, as Barnum was constantly inviting guests to come and visit.  Visitors were such a priority that the property included two guest cottages, so that guests could have their own place to stay....

This week’s “Photo of the Week” is of P.T. Barnum sitting in a horse drawn carriage in front of his mansion, Waldemere. Waldemere had been built for Barnum’s wife Charity, who he had wooed many years earlier with a fine horse and sleigh.  In his biography, Barnum writes about trying to get his g...

This week’s “Photo of the Week” shows the remains of Barnum’s American Museum in 1868.  Barnum’s first museum had burnt down in 1865 and it had taken time and a great deal of effort to get the institution back on its feet, but it burnt down again in under three years.  On March 3, 1868, in the middle of horribly c...

This week’s picture is of inventor Allen B. Wilson.  He took the basic ideas behind Elias Howe’s automatic sewing machine and improved upon its design.  He found a simpler, easier way to create a lockstitch, and also improved on the way in which cloth was fed into the machine.  He was one of the founders of the Whe...

This week’s photo shows Waldemere which was Barnum’s third mansion in Bridgeport and the last which he shared with his wife Charity.  Charity Barnum was rather sickly in the last years before her death in 1873, and it was suggested by doctors that she move to the shore for her health.  It was for this reason tha...