You Should Know These Facts About P.T. Barnum

If you don't know who P.T. Barnum is, I'll tell you. He was an moderate hoaxer and showman, meaning that he didn't always display hoaxes but frequently he would.  Like his first fascinating object of exhibition to curious viewers was the 'nurse of George Washington.' She was an African American woman named Joyce

Phineas Taylor Barnum. 

Heth, whom he said was actually over 160 years old.  He would make money displaying Joyce in tours (that way he would make more money; classic businessman's move) from 1835-6. In 1836 Joyce died at her true age...70 years old.

Today hoaxes are frequently defrauded because contemporary people know that they shouldn't always trust everything they hear, which is a hard subject to write about without sounding paranoid, some doubt is just healthy. Anyways, people were more gullible in the 1800's, and Barnum knew how to use that to his advantage.

After a brief failure after Joyce died, he purchased a museum in New York and became the Father of Sideshow, commonly called the 'freaks' of the day.

Now that you know who he is, let me tell you all the interesting things about him.

1.  He is widely thought to have coined 'There's a Sucker Born Every Minute," even though it is likely he never said it.
2. He is the maker of the Feejee Mermaid Hoax, which at the time was advertised as a beautiful mermaid when actually it was a dead monkey and fish sown together (that's gross and unhealthy)

How you might imagine mermaids

What this mermaid looked like

3. He also exhibited a dwarf as General Tom Thumb.

The General Insurance Guy in Real Life
actually no it's Tom Thumb

Sources:
Phineas Taylor Barnum on the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannia: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Barnum,_Phineas_Taylor
The Hoaxes of P.T. Barnum: http://hoaxes.org/archive/display/category/p.t._barnum