Thursday, March 16, 2017

Barnum and the museum revolution response

In chapter Barnum and the museum revolution of Weird & Wonderful,  Andrea Stulman Dennett continues in the timeline in which museums turned from its original purpose to what it is today; or as the article said "the difference between true history and natural history". The interesting part of the chapter is seeing how the transformation from spiritual and science were interchangeable with the influence of entertainment. Paragraph 25 line 34, explains how people would attend Harry Bennett's show adverting "magician, a mind reader and an anaconda that swallowed a live fowl twice a week in front of a crowd of gaping patrons".
P.T. Barnum was able to allure an audience using anything entertaining with the most important factor of any industry today; business. Barnum used publicity (newspapers), aesthetics, made several investments and added an interesting story behind beautiful items to allure the audience. He also rephrased a lot of the advertisements used to promote his exhibits so it can make the audience feel..   Barnum was a catalyst for modern museums because he incorporated marketing and business to the art. He influenced museums to be a more profitable business more so for entertainment than education, which led to the trillion dollar industry we have today.





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