Lost Museum

A virtual recreation of P.T. Barnum’s American Museum

A 3-D exploration of P.T. Barnum’s American Museum, one of 19th century America’s most popular attractions

Go to the Lost Museum ⮕

Project Information

Award-winning resource
Recognized as an outstanding interactive media production

3-D recreation of a physical museum
with accompanying educator materials

Five Points NYC

The award-winning Lost Museum offers a three-dimensional re-creation of P. T. Barnum’s American Museum, the most visited cultural attraction in the nineteenth-century United States. By exploring the site’s virtual space, along with its extensive archive and teaching resources, visitors can experience the era’s controversies over race, gender, reform, immigration, sectionalism, and popular culture. The Lost Museum was created in partnership with the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Old York Foundation.



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