Education: Lesson Details

Skip to lesson content


Objectives

[none]

Materials

    Background Essays

    1. A Typology Of Freak Shows
    2. Public Amusements In An Era Of An Emerging Middle Class
    3. What Was A Museum In Antebellum America?

    Annotated & Abridged Documents

    1. "What Is It?" Advertisement
    2. Circus And Museum Freaks -- Curiosities Of Pathology
    3. Letter From Mark Twain
    4. Memoir Of Eventful Expedition In Central America; Resulting In The Discovery Of The Idolatrous City Of Iximaya, In An Unexplored Region; And The Possession Of Two Remarkable Aztec Children
    5. Mrs. Tom Thumb's Autobiography
    6. Sketch Of The Life, Personal Appearance, Character And Manners Of Charles S. Stratton, The Man In Miniature, Known As General Tom Thumb, And His Wife, Lavinia Warren Stratton; Including The History Of Their Courtship And Marriage, With Some Account Of Remarkable Dwarfs, Giants, & Other Human Phenomena, Of Ancient And Modern Times, And Songs Given At Their Public Levees