Editing P. T. Barnum (section)

===Diversified activities===
[[File:P. T. Barnum letter to Henry Ashley, 1882-06-28.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=follow image link for full transcript|Barnum's hand-written letter of June 28, 1882, to Henry Ashley of the ''[[New York Clipper]]'', on paper headed with Barnum's monogram. ]]

Barnum's next challenge was to change public attitudes about the theater, which was widely regarded as a salacious enterprise. He wanted theaters to become palaces of edification and delight as respectable middle-class entertainment. He built New York City's largest and most modern theater, naming it the Moral Lecture Room. Barnum hoped that this would avoid seedy connotations, attract a family crowd and win the approval of the city's moral crusaders. He started the nation's first theatrical matinées to encourage families and to lessen the fear of crime.

The theater opened with ''[[The Drunkard]]'', a thinly disguised [[Temperance movement|temperance]] lecture. Barnum had become a teetotaler after returning from Europe. He followed it with melodramas, farces and historical plays performed by highly regarded actors. He edited [[Shakespeare]]an plays and other works such as ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' to render them more palatable for family audiences.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

Barnum organized flower shows, beauty contests, dog shows and poultry contests, but the most popular were baby contests. In 1853 he started the pictorial weekly newspaper ''Illustrated News''. He completed his autobiography one year later, which sold more than one million copies over the course of numerous revisions. [[Mark Twain]] loved the book, but the ''British Examiner'' thought it "trashy" and "offensive" and wrote that it inspired "nothing but sensations of disgust" and "sincere pity for the wretched man who compiled it."<ref>{{harvnb|Kunhardt|Kunhardt|Kunhardt|1995|p=120}}</ref>

In the early 1850s, Barnum began investing to develop [[Bridgeport, Connecticut|East Bridgeport, Connecticut]]. He extended substantial loans to the Jerome Clock Company to lure it to move to his new industrial area, but the company went bankrupt by 1856, taking Barnum's wealth with it. This began four years of litigation and public humiliation. [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] proclaimed that Barnum's downfall showed "the gods visible again", and other critics celebrated Barnum's public dilemma. However, Tom Thumb offered his services, as he was touring on his own, and the two began another European tour. Barnum also started a lecture tour, mostly as a temperance speaker. By 1860, he emerged from debt and built a mansion that he called Lindencroft, and he resumed ownership of his museum.

[[File:Barnum and Commodore Nutt.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Barnum with [[Commodore Nutt]], photograph by [[Charles DeForest Fredricks]]]]

Barnum created America's first [[aquarium]] and expanded the [[Wax sculpture|wax figure]] section of his museum. His "Seven Grand Salons" demonstrated the [[Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]]. The collections expanded to four buildings, and he published a museum guidebook that claimed 850,000 "curiosities".<ref>{{harvnb|Kunhardt|Kunhardt|Kunhardt|1995|p=138}}</ref> Late in 1860, [[Conjoined twins|Siamese twins]] [[Chang and Eng]] emerged from retirement and appeared at Barnum's museum for six weeks. Also in 1860, Barnum introduced [[Zip the Pinhead]], a [[microcephalic]] black man who spoke a mysterious language created by Barnum. In 1862, Barnum discovered giantess [[Anna Swan]] and dwarf [[Commodore Nutt]], a new Tom Thumb with whom Barnum visited President [[Abraham Lincoln]] at the White House. A year earlier, President Lincoln had visited on February 19, 1861, to which Barnum sent notice to the press for publicity.<ref>Dennett, Andrea Stulman. ''Weird and Wonderful: The Dime Museum in America.'' New York, NY: New York University Press, 1997. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.18574/9780814744215</nowiki>. </ref> 

During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], Barnum's museum drew large audiences seeking diversion from the conflict. He added pro-[[Union (U.S. Civil War)|Union]] exhibits, lectures and dramas, and he demonstrated commitment to the cause. He hired [[Pauline Cushman]] in 1864, an actress who had served as a spy for the Union, to lecture about her "thrilling adventures" behind Confederate lines. Barnum's Unionist sympathies incited a [[Confederate Army of Manhattan|Confederate sympathizer]] to start a fire in 1864. Barnum's American Museum burned to the ground on July 13, 1865, from a fire of unknown origin. Barnum reestablished it at another location in New York City, but this was also destroyed by fire in March 1868. The loss was too great the second time, and Barnum retired from the museum business.

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