The Feejee Mermaid Part One
The Feejee mermaid is probably the most famous cryptozoology-related humbug ever created and although we have mentioned it a few times on the blog, including Alan Friswell's marvellous creation for the CFZ that featured in the first ever published guide to Feejee-mermaid-fabrication in Fortean Times, we have never actually had an in-depth look at the story behind this staple of the sideshow.
The original Feejee mermaid arrived in New York in the company of Dr J. Griffin of the British Lyceum of Natural History in mid July of 1842. For some time previously the local papers of New York had been receiving gushing letters brimming with excitement over a strange creature that had been caught in the 'Feejee islands' (an alternative spelling of the Fiji islands) that was part human and part fish. Indeed, according to the letters, this was no less than a real mermaid, an animal which according to scientists was a creature of myth created by the minds of randy sailors. The papers were certainly interested in seeing and reporting upon this marvel when Dr Griffin came to town, and they practically besieged his hotel in the hope of seeing the mermaid and gaining an exclusive report.
Someone other than the press was also very interested in the mermaid and this being nineteeth-century New York, it really doesn't take a genius to guess who...the world's greatest showman ever Phineas T. Barnum.
Barnum gave several newspapers what they thought was an exclusive when he approached each in turn offering to donate a woodcut that he no longer needed that they could use to illustrate their stories. Barnum said that he had been trying to buy the mermaid off Dr Griffin and had prepared the woodcut beforehand for use in producing promotional materials; however, Barnum told the newspapers, this was not to be as Dr Griffin had turned him down. The newspaper was happy to take the woodcut off Barnum's hands as this meant that they could get their copy out faster and with an illustration, something their rivals would surely not have! The fact that they could also tie this story in with a local celebrity also helped push up the article's importance and chances of hitting the front page.
On the day the stories were published - the 17th of July - Barnum revealed his true hand and distributed thousands of copies of his own leaflets about the mermaid throughout New York. The woodcuts and the leaflets both depicted mermaids as nubile , plump-bosomed, young ladies without a scallop shell bikini in sight.
This borderline pornography certainly got locals even more interested in seeing the mermaid, who was sure to be a rare beauty if these pictures were to be believed. The reaction of these New Yorkers to seeing the wizened and emaciated half-fish and half-monkey mummy that was the real Feejee mermaid must have been priceless. Unsurprisingly, after the departure of Dr Griffin the mermaid was housed in Barnum's New York museum where it continued to draw huge crowds. The mermaid went on a tour soon after, even reaching England in 1859, and was destroyed in a fire at Moses Kimball's Boston museum, where it was residing, sometime in the 1880s.
The Feejee mermaid is probably the most famous cryptozoology-related humbug ever created and although we have mentioned it a few times on the blog, including Alan Friswell's marvellous creation for the CFZ that featured in the first ever published guide to Feejee-mermaid-fabrication in Fortean Times, we have never actually had an in-depth look at the story behind this staple of the sideshow.
The original Feejee mermaid arrived in New York in the company of Dr J. Griffin of the British Lyceum of Natural History in mid July of 1842. For some time previously the local papers of New York had been receiving gushing letters brimming with excitement over a strange creature that had been caught in the 'Feejee islands' (an alternative spelling of the Fiji islands) that was part human and part fish. Indeed, according to the letters, this was no less than a real mermaid, an animal which according to scientists was a creature of myth created by the minds of randy sailors. The papers were certainly interested in seeing and reporting upon this marvel when Dr Griffin came to town, and they practically besieged his hotel in the hope of seeing the mermaid and gaining an exclusive report.
Someone other than the press was also very interested in the mermaid and this being nineteeth-century New York, it really doesn't take a genius to guess who...the world's greatest showman ever Phineas T. Barnum.
Barnum gave several newspapers what they thought was an exclusive when he approached each in turn offering to donate a woodcut that he no longer needed that they could use to illustrate their stories. Barnum said that he had been trying to buy the mermaid off Dr Griffin and had prepared the woodcut beforehand for use in producing promotional materials; however, Barnum told the newspapers, this was not to be as Dr Griffin had turned him down. The newspaper was happy to take the woodcut off Barnum's hands as this meant that they could get their copy out faster and with an illustration, something their rivals would surely not have! The fact that they could also tie this story in with a local celebrity also helped push up the article's importance and chances of hitting the front page.
On the day the stories were published - the 17th of July - Barnum revealed his true hand and distributed thousands of copies of his own leaflets about the mermaid throughout New York. The woodcuts and the leaflets both depicted mermaids as nubile , plump-bosomed, young ladies without a scallop shell bikini in sight.
This borderline pornography certainly got locals even more interested in seeing the mermaid, who was sure to be a rare beauty if these pictures were to be believed. The reaction of these New Yorkers to seeing the wizened and emaciated half-fish and half-monkey mummy that was the real Feejee mermaid must have been priceless. Unsurprisingly, after the departure of Dr Griffin the mermaid was housed in Barnum's New York museum where it continued to draw huge crowds. The mermaid went on a tour soon after, even reaching England in 1859, and was destroyed in a fire at Moses Kimball's Boston museum, where it was residing, sometime in the 1880s.
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