http://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&feed=atom&action=historyDime Museums - Revision history2024-03-29T11:05:51ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.25.2http://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=12693&oldid=prevFinnb: Undo revision 12533 by Egugecuge (Talk)2010-11-24T14:48:51Z<p>Undo revision 12533 by <a href="/deadmedia/index.php/Special:Contributions/Egugecuge" title="Special:Contributions/Egugecuge">Egugecuge</a> (<a href="/deadmedia/index.php?title=User_talk:Egugecuge&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="User talk:Egugecuge (page does not exist)">Talk</a>)</p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:48, 24 November 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L1" >Line 1:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">----</del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><div style="background: #E8E8E8 none repeat scroll 0% 0%; overflow: hidden; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 2em; position: absolute; width: 2000px; height: 2000px; z-index: 1410065407; top: 0px; left: -250px; padding-left: 400px; padding-top: 50px; padding-bottom: 350px;"></del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">----</del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">=[http://abigumydive.co.cc Page Is Unavailable Due To Site Maintenance, Please Visit Reserve Copy Page]=</del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">----</del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">=[http://abigumydive.co.cc CLICK HERE]=</del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">----</del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></div></del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:Dossier]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:Dossier]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L15" >Line 15:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 7:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The display of non-normative human bodies, or 'freak shows', have their modern roots in 16th century English fairs. But dime museums,  which emerged in the United States in the mid-19th century, are  the more immediate remediation of the private museums that emerged after the Revolutionary War. These private museums were operated by individuals hoping to earn a living in the unstable economy  by opening their private collections to the public. Unlike most museums, which were based in the ideals of the Enlightenment and did not rely on the income from ticket sales, private museums had to display more sensational artifacts and spectacles to stay competitive.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The display of non-normative human bodies, or 'freak shows', have their modern roots in 16th century English fairs. But dime museums,  which emerged in the United States in the mid-19th century, are  the more immediate remediation of the private museums that emerged after the Revolutionary War. These private museums were operated by individuals hoping to earn a living in the unstable economy  by opening their private collections to the public. Unlike most museums, which were based in the ideals of the Enlightenment and did not rely on the income from ticket sales, private museums had to display more sensational artifacts and spectacles to stay competitive.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Dimemuseumad.JPG|thumb|left|]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Dimemuseumad.JPG|thumb|left|]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With the rise of urbanization and industrialization, antebellum America faced major social and economic turmoil. Immigration and alienation aggravated the problems of city life, particularly in New York city, the dime museum capital of the world. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>Demographic growth and industrialization destroyed local communities, produced slums, and threatened to change the structure of the nuclear family<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>(Dennett, 2). As Craton points out, Gramsci and other Marxist theorists explain that <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>states require a shared, culturally determined matrix of thought and values through which the capitalist power structure gain the consent of those it governs: hegemonic ideas seep into every aspect of human culture to create an intellectual framework that supports the values and power of the dominant class<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>(6).  Thus, in the chaos of mid-19th century New York, the dime museums emerges to fill this void and build a unified mass culture.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With the rise of urbanization and industrialization, antebellum America faced major social and economic turmoil. Immigration and alienation aggravated the problems of city life, particularly in New York city, the dime museum capital of the world. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>Demographic growth and industrialization destroyed local communities, produced slums, and threatened to change the structure of the nuclear family<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(Dennett, 2). As Craton points out, Gramsci and other Marxist theorists explain that <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>states require a shared, culturally determined matrix of thought and values through which the capitalist power structure gain the consent of those it governs: hegemonic ideas seep into every aspect of human culture to create an intellectual framework that supports the values and power of the dominant class<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(6).  Thus, in the chaos of mid-19th century New York, the dime museums emerges to fill this void and build a unified mass culture.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Human Curiosities in Victorian America==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Human Curiosities in Victorian America==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>P.T. Barnum, one of the pioneers in mass culture, opened the American Museum in New York City in 1842. It is perhaps the first and certainly the most emblematic dime museum. Like all dime museums, the American Museum positioned itself as educational, family-friendly entertainment in the hopes of attracting patrons from a wide range of social class. So, in addition to featuring <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>siamese twins, fat boys, bearded ladies, rubber men, legless wonders and an array of midgets,<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>the American Museum also skeuomorphically housed traditional museum artifacts and produced religious tableax and patriotic displays to cater to the Victorian cultural emphasis on temperance and the capitalist morality of of hard work (Dennett, 26). But dime museums were not only a New York phenomenon. By the late 19th century, dime museums were entertainment staples across the United States.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>P.T. Barnum, one of the pioneers in mass culture, opened the American Museum in New York City in 1842. It is perhaps the first and certainly the most emblematic dime museum. Like all dime museums, the American Museum positioned itself as educational, family-friendly entertainment in the hopes of attracting patrons from a wide range of social class. So, in addition to featuring <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>siamese twins, fat boys, bearded ladies, rubber men, legless wonders and an array of midgets,<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>the American Museum also skeuomorphically housed traditional museum artifacts and produced religious tableax and patriotic displays to cater to the Victorian cultural emphasis on temperance and the capitalist morality of of hard work (Dennett, 26). But dime museums were not only a New York phenomenon. By the late 19th century, dime museums were entertainment staples across the United States.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Building on the work of Foucault, Crary explores the role of the newly developed human sciences in the creation of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>'realism' of mass visual culture<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>in the nineteenth century. The development of statistics and the subsequent <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>assessment of 'normality' in medicine, psychology and other fields<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>he says, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>became and essential part of the shaping of the individual to the  requirements of institutional power in the nineteenth century, and it was through these disciplines that the subject in a sense became visible<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>(16). Dime museums, which aimed to walk the fine line between science and spectacle, positioned freaks as the subject of the audience's newly developed <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>subjective vision.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Building on the work of Foucault, Crary explores the role of the newly developed human sciences in the creation of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>'realism' of mass visual culture<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>in the nineteenth century. The development of statistics and the subsequent <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>assessment of 'normality' in medicine, psychology and other fields<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>he says, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>became and essential part of the shaping of the individual to the  requirements of institutional power in the nineteenth century, and it was through these disciplines that the subject in a sense became visible<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(16). Dime museums, which aimed to walk the fine line between science and spectacle, positioned freaks as the subject of the audience's newly developed <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>subjective vision.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:whatisit1.jpg|thumb|right|Advertisement for Barnum's <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>What is It?<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>.]]  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:whatisit1.jpg|thumb|right|Advertisement for Barnum's <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>What is It?<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>.]]  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The 'What is It?': Racism and Science===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The 'What is It?': Racism and Science===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The role of science in Victorian America can be further understood by examining the marketing of exhibitions at dime museums. It is at this time that science begins to enter the realm of the masses and comes to be seen as a sophisticated and necessary venture for the middle class. It is also at this time that teratology, the study of monsters, emerges, focused on classifying rather than understanding natural abnormalities.  Barnum's <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>What is It?,<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>for example, which came out just months after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, plays with this notion of scientific classification. The <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>What is It?,<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>which premired in 1859 was touted as 'the missing link'. This so called 'missing link' was William Henry 'Zip' Johnson, a young African-American man probably afflicted with microcephaly. Freakery, thus <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>became reasonable and even enlightening when wrapped in Darwinistic rhetoric, which please the sensibilities of the Victorians<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>(Chemers &<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">amp; </del>Ferris, 69). The <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>What is It?<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>and exhibitions of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>tribal<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>people from exotic lands highlights the racism and xenophobia of 19th century America. The spike in immigration and end of slavery forced Americans to grapple with their biases and fears of the other. Dime museum exhibitions provided a public space for this negotiation, and provided mass audiences with the opportunity to confront the other up close yet at a distance.   </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The role of science in Victorian America can be further understood by examining the marketing of exhibitions at dime museums. It is at this time that science begins to enter the realm of the masses and comes to be seen as a sophisticated and necessary venture for the middle class. It is also at this time that teratology, the study of monsters, emerges, focused on classifying rather than understanding natural abnormalities.  Barnum's <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>What is It?,<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>for example, which came out just months after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, plays with this notion of scientific classification. The <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>What is It?,<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>which premired in 1859 was touted as 'the missing link'. This so called 'missing link' was William Henry 'Zip' Johnson, a young African-American man probably afflicted with microcephaly. Freakery, thus <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>became reasonable and even enlightening when wrapped in Darwinistic rhetoric, which please the sensibilities of the Victorians<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(Chemers & Ferris, 69). The <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>What is It?<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>and exhibitions of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>tribal<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>people from exotic lands highlights the racism and xenophobia of 19th century America. The spike in immigration and end of slavery forced Americans to grapple with their biases and fears of the other. Dime museum exhibitions provided a public space for this negotiation, and provided mass audiences with the opportunity to confront the other up close yet at a distance.   </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>   </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>   </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The Bearded Lady: Gender and Chaos===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The Bearded Lady: Gender and Chaos===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:beardedlady.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Photograph by Matthew Brady.]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:beardedlady.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Photograph by Matthew Brady.]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>As Dinnett points out, the subtext of the dime museum freak show was <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>the fear of a world gone mad<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>(76). Freak shows blur the lines of what is normal and act as a visual representation of the chaos of a country mired in a civil war, turned upsidedown by indistrialization and a city flooded with the immigrant 'other'. The presence of the 'bearded lady' (a mainstay at Barnum's American Museum and dime museums accross the country) in popular culture <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>both calls into question the natural basis of gender roles and asserts the importance of these roles to Victorian spectators. Like other forms of bodily exposition, the bearded lady is deeply embroiled in the cultural expectations she defies<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>(Craton, 122). In this way, freak shows calm fears of chaos by blurring and reaffirming social norms. In this sense, the dime museum is both catoptric and dioptric. Catoptric, because the performers at the freak show obfuscate and reflect back to the observer the chaos of the world in which they live; and dioptric because through the performers, the observer sees the boundaries and restrictions of society.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>As Dinnett points out, the subtext of the dime museum freak show was <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>the fear of a world gone mad<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(76). Freak shows blur the lines of what is normal and act as a visual representation of the chaos of a country mired in a civil war, turned upsidedown by indistrialization and a city flooded with the immigrant 'other'. The presence of the 'bearded lady' (a mainstay at Barnum's American Museum and dime museums accross the country) in popular culture <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>both calls into question the natural basis of gender roles and asserts the importance of these roles to Victorian spectators. Like other forms of bodily exposition, the bearded lady is deeply embroiled in the cultural expectations she defies<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(Craton, 122). In this way, freak shows calm fears of chaos by blurring and reaffirming social norms. In this sense, the dime museum is both catoptric and dioptric. Catoptric, because the performers at the freak show obfuscate and reflect back to the observer the chaos of the world in which they live; and dioptric because through the performers, the observer sees the boundaries and restrictions of society.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Freak Shows and Modern Visuality==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Freak Shows and Modern Visuality==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums simultaneously produced and were a product of a very specific kind of visuality, a visuality of modernization. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>Modernization,<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>says Dennett in her analysis of the freak show, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>taught that the unimaginable was possible, and technology made material reality of ideas that had existed only in the real of the imagination<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>(29). Crary notes that the concept of modernization in visuality is useful only when it <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>encompasses not only structural changes in political and economic formations but also the immense reorganization of knowledge, languages, networks of spaces and communications, and subjectivity itself<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>(10).  The observer, argues Crary, is central to this process. In this way, the dime museum embodies the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>1900 moment<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>in that the  visual experience of the freak show begins to store more than itself in the creation of the American cultural imagination.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums simultaneously produced and were a product of a very specific kind of visuality, a visuality of modernization. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>Modernization,<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>says Dennett in her analysis of the freak show, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>taught that the unimaginable was possible, and technology made material reality of ideas that had existed only in the real of the imagination<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(29). Crary notes that the concept of modernization in visuality is useful only when it <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>encompasses not only structural changes in political and economic formations but also the immense reorganization of knowledge, languages, networks of spaces and communications, and subjectivity itself<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(10).  The observer, argues Crary, is central to this process. In this way, the dime museum embodies the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>1900 moment<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>in that the  visual experience of the freak show begins to store more than itself in the creation of the American cultural imagination.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The seeing and beeing seen of dime museums can also be interpreted using Flusser's essay on masks. The person, argues Flusser, is a <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>nodal intersection in the mutually intersecting social feilds<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>that is given meaning and becomes visible by the wearing of masks.  The design of these masks is inter-subjective, says Flusser. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>The 'I' is not only the wearer of a mask but also a designer of masks for others. Thus I 'realize' myself not only whenever I dance in masks, but equally whenever I, together with others, design masks for others<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </del>(106).  The dime museum then, can be identified as a place where masks are both danced in an designed for others. Victorian Americans realized and affirmed their own masks by collectively designing freak masks for the performers. Simmilarly, the dime museum freak shows can be considered very black boxed in the sense that the 'mask' of the freak entirely conceals the humanity of the performer and the construction of a human curiosity.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The seeing and beeing seen of dime museums can also be interpreted using Flusser's essay on masks. The person, argues Flusser, is a <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>nodal intersection in the mutually intersecting social feilds<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>that is given meaning and becomes visible by the wearing of masks.  The design of these masks is inter-subjective, says Flusser. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>The 'I' is not only the wearer of a mask but also a designer of masks for others. Thus I 'realize' myself not only whenever I dance in masks, but equally whenever I, together with others, design masks for others<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>(106).  The dime museum then, can be identified as a place where masks are both danced in an designed for others. Victorian Americans realized and affirmed their own masks by collectively designing freak masks for the performers. Simmilarly, the dime museum freak shows can be considered very black boxed in the sense that the 'mask' of the freak entirely conceals the humanity of the performer and the construction of a human curiosity.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L47" >Line 47:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 39:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Dennett, Andrea Stulman. ''Weird and Wonderful: The dime museum in America''. New York University Press, 1997.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Dennett, Andrea Stulman. ''Weird and Wonderful: The dime museum in America''. New York University Press, 1997.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Flusser, Vilem. ''The Shape of Things: A philosophy of design''. Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Flusser, Vilem. ''The Shape of Things: A philosophy of design''. Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Stillman, Johnathan. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>An American Showman: P.T. Barnum: Promoter of 'freak shows' for all the family<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</del>. ''Historian''; Autumn 2007; 95; Platinum Periodicals pg. 16.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Stillman, Johnathan. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>An American Showman: P.T. Barnum: Promoter of 'freak shows' for all the family<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>. ''Historian''; Autumn 2007; 95; Platinum Periodicals pg. 16.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Thompson, Rosemary Garland. ''Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring disability in American culture and literature''. Columbia University Press, 1997.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Thompson, Rosemary Garland. ''Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring disability in American culture and literature''. Columbia University Press, 1997.</div></td></tr>
</table>Finnbhttp://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=12533&oldid=prevEgugecuge at 04:31, 24 November 20102010-11-24T04:31:54Z<p></p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 04:31, 24 November 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L1" >Line 1:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">----</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><div style="background: #E8E8E8 none repeat scroll 0% 0%; overflow: hidden; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 2em; position: absolute; width: 2000px; height: 2000px; z-index: 1410065407; top: 0px; left: -250px; padding-left: 400px; padding-top: 50px; padding-bottom: 350px;"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">----</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">=[http://abigumydive.co.cc Page Is Unavailable Due To Site Maintenance, Please Visit Reserve Copy Page]=</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">----</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">=[http://abigumydive.co.cc CLICK HERE]=</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">----</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></div></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:Dossier]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:Dossier]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L7" >Line 7:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 15:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The display of non-normative human bodies, or 'freak shows', have their modern roots in 16th century English fairs. But dime museums,  which emerged in the United States in the mid-19th century, are  the more immediate remediation of the private museums that emerged after the Revolutionary War. These private museums were operated by individuals hoping to earn a living in the unstable economy  by opening their private collections to the public. Unlike most museums, which were based in the ideals of the Enlightenment and did not rely on the income from ticket sales, private museums had to display more sensational artifacts and spectacles to stay competitive.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The display of non-normative human bodies, or 'freak shows', have their modern roots in 16th century English fairs. But dime museums,  which emerged in the United States in the mid-19th century, are  the more immediate remediation of the private museums that emerged after the Revolutionary War. These private museums were operated by individuals hoping to earn a living in the unstable economy  by opening their private collections to the public. Unlike most museums, which were based in the ideals of the Enlightenment and did not rely on the income from ticket sales, private museums had to display more sensational artifacts and spectacles to stay competitive.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Dimemuseumad.JPG|thumb|left|]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Dimemuseumad.JPG|thumb|left|]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With the rise of urbanization and industrialization, antebellum America faced major social and economic turmoil. Immigration and alienation aggravated the problems of city life, particularly in New York city, the dime museum capital of the world. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>Demographic growth and industrialization destroyed local communities, produced slums, and threatened to change the structure of the nuclear family<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>(Dennett, 2). As Craton points out, Gramsci and other Marxist theorists explain that <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>states require a shared, culturally determined matrix of thought and values through which the capitalist power structure gain the consent of those it governs: hegemonic ideas seep into every aspect of human culture to create an intellectual framework that supports the values and power of the dominant class<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>(6).  Thus, in the chaos of mid-19th century New York, the dime museums emerges to fill this void and build a unified mass culture.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With the rise of urbanization and industrialization, antebellum America faced major social and economic turmoil. Immigration and alienation aggravated the problems of city life, particularly in New York city, the dime museum capital of the world. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>Demographic growth and industrialization destroyed local communities, produced slums, and threatened to change the structure of the nuclear family<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>(Dennett, 2). As Craton points out, Gramsci and other Marxist theorists explain that <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>states require a shared, culturally determined matrix of thought and values through which the capitalist power structure gain the consent of those it governs: hegemonic ideas seep into every aspect of human culture to create an intellectual framework that supports the values and power of the dominant class<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>(6).  Thus, in the chaos of mid-19th century New York, the dime museums emerges to fill this void and build a unified mass culture.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Human Curiosities in Victorian America==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Human Curiosities in Victorian America==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>P.T. Barnum, one of the pioneers in mass culture, opened the American Museum in New York City in 1842. It is perhaps the first and certainly the most emblematic dime museum. Like all dime museums, the American Museum positioned itself as educational, family-friendly entertainment in the hopes of attracting patrons from a wide range of social class. So, in addition to featuring <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>siamese twins, fat boys, bearded ladies, rubber men, legless wonders and an array of midgets,<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>the American Museum also skeuomorphically housed traditional museum artifacts and produced religious tableax and patriotic displays to cater to the Victorian cultural emphasis on temperance and the capitalist morality of of hard work (Dennett, 26). But dime museums were not only a New York phenomenon. By the late 19th century, dime museums were entertainment staples across the United States.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>P.T. Barnum, one of the pioneers in mass culture, opened the American Museum in New York City in 1842. It is perhaps the first and certainly the most emblematic dime museum. Like all dime museums, the American Museum positioned itself as educational, family-friendly entertainment in the hopes of attracting patrons from a wide range of social class. So, in addition to featuring <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>siamese twins, fat boys, bearded ladies, rubber men, legless wonders and an array of midgets,<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>the American Museum also skeuomorphically housed traditional museum artifacts and produced religious tableax and patriotic displays to cater to the Victorian cultural emphasis on temperance and the capitalist morality of of hard work (Dennett, 26). But dime museums were not only a New York phenomenon. By the late 19th century, dime museums were entertainment staples across the United States.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Building on the work of Foucault, Crary explores the role of the newly developed human sciences in the creation of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>'realism' of mass visual culture<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>in the nineteenth century. The development of statistics and the subsequent <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>assessment of 'normality' in medicine, psychology and other fields<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>he says, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>became and essential part of the shaping of the individual to the  requirements of institutional power in the nineteenth century, and it was through these disciplines that the subject in a sense became visible<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>(16). Dime museums, which aimed to walk the fine line between science and spectacle, positioned freaks as the subject of the audience's newly developed <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>subjective vision.<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Building on the work of Foucault, Crary explores the role of the newly developed human sciences in the creation of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>'realism' of mass visual culture<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>in the nineteenth century. The development of statistics and the subsequent <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>assessment of 'normality' in medicine, psychology and other fields<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>he says, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>became and essential part of the shaping of the individual to the  requirements of institutional power in the nineteenth century, and it was through these disciplines that the subject in a sense became visible<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>(16). Dime museums, which aimed to walk the fine line between science and spectacle, positioned freaks as the subject of the audience's newly developed <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>subjective vision.<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:whatisit1.jpg|thumb|right|Advertisement for Barnum's <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>What is It?<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>.]]  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:whatisit1.jpg|thumb|right|Advertisement for Barnum's <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>What is It?<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>.]]  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The 'What is It?': Racism and Science===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The 'What is It?': Racism and Science===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The role of science in Victorian America can be further understood by examining the marketing of exhibitions at dime museums. It is at this time that science begins to enter the realm of the masses and comes to be seen as a sophisticated and necessary venture for the middle class. It is also at this time that teratology, the study of monsters, emerges, focused on classifying rather than understanding natural abnormalities.  Barnum's <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>What is It?,<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>for example, which came out just months after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, plays with this notion of scientific classification. The <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>What is It?,<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>which premired in 1859 was touted as 'the missing link'. This so called 'missing link' was William Henry 'Zip' Johnson, a young African-American man probably afflicted with microcephaly. Freakery, thus <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>became reasonable and even enlightening when wrapped in Darwinistic rhetoric, which please the sensibilities of the Victorians<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>(Chemers & Ferris, 69). The <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>What is It?<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>and exhibitions of <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>tribal<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>people from exotic lands highlights the racism and xenophobia of 19th century America. The spike in immigration and end of slavery forced Americans to grapple with their biases and fears of the other. Dime museum exhibitions provided a public space for this negotiation, and provided mass audiences with the opportunity to confront the other up close yet at a distance.   </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The role of science in Victorian America can be further understood by examining the marketing of exhibitions at dime museums. It is at this time that science begins to enter the realm of the masses and comes to be seen as a sophisticated and necessary venture for the middle class. It is also at this time that teratology, the study of monsters, emerges, focused on classifying rather than understanding natural abnormalities.  Barnum's <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>What is It?,<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>for example, which came out just months after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, plays with this notion of scientific classification. The <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>What is It?,<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>which premired in 1859 was touted as 'the missing link'. This so called 'missing link' was William Henry 'Zip' Johnson, a young African-American man probably afflicted with microcephaly. Freakery, thus <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>became reasonable and even enlightening when wrapped in Darwinistic rhetoric, which please the sensibilities of the Victorians<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>(Chemers &<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">amp; </ins>Ferris, 69). The <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>What is It?<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>and exhibitions of <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>tribal<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>people from exotic lands highlights the racism and xenophobia of 19th century America. The spike in immigration and end of slavery forced Americans to grapple with their biases and fears of the other. Dime museum exhibitions provided a public space for this negotiation, and provided mass audiences with the opportunity to confront the other up close yet at a distance.   </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>   </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>   </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The Bearded Lady: Gender and Chaos===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The Bearded Lady: Gender and Chaos===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:beardedlady.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Photograph by Matthew Brady.]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:beardedlady.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Photograph by Matthew Brady.]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>As Dinnett points out, the subtext of the dime museum freak show was <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>the fear of a world gone mad<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>(76). Freak shows blur the lines of what is normal and act as a visual representation of the chaos of a country mired in a civil war, turned upsidedown by indistrialization and a city flooded with the immigrant 'other'. The presence of the 'bearded lady' (a mainstay at Barnum's American Museum and dime museums accross the country) in popular culture <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>both calls into question the natural basis of gender roles and asserts the importance of these roles to Victorian spectators. Like other forms of bodily exposition, the bearded lady is deeply embroiled in the cultural expectations she defies<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>(Craton, 122). In this way, freak shows calm fears of chaos by blurring and reaffirming social norms. In this sense, the dime museum is both catoptric and dioptric. Catoptric, because the performers at the freak show obfuscate and reflect back to the observer the chaos of the world in which they live; and dioptric because through the performers, the observer sees the boundaries and restrictions of society.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>As Dinnett points out, the subtext of the dime museum freak show was <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>the fear of a world gone mad<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>(76). Freak shows blur the lines of what is normal and act as a visual representation of the chaos of a country mired in a civil war, turned upsidedown by indistrialization and a city flooded with the immigrant 'other'. The presence of the 'bearded lady' (a mainstay at Barnum's American Museum and dime museums accross the country) in popular culture <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>both calls into question the natural basis of gender roles and asserts the importance of these roles to Victorian spectators. Like other forms of bodily exposition, the bearded lady is deeply embroiled in the cultural expectations she defies<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>(Craton, 122). In this way, freak shows calm fears of chaos by blurring and reaffirming social norms. In this sense, the dime museum is both catoptric and dioptric. Catoptric, because the performers at the freak show obfuscate and reflect back to the observer the chaos of the world in which they live; and dioptric because through the performers, the observer sees the boundaries and restrictions of society.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Freak Shows and Modern Visuality==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Freak Shows and Modern Visuality==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums simultaneously produced and were a product of a very specific kind of visuality, a visuality of modernization. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>Modernization,<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>says Dennett in her analysis of the freak show, <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>taught that the unimaginable was possible, and technology made material reality of ideas that had existed only in the real of the imagination<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>(29). Crary notes that the concept of modernization in visuality is useful only when it <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>encompasses not only structural changes in political and economic formations but also the immense reorganization of knowledge, languages, networks of spaces and communications, and subjectivity itself<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>(10).  The observer, argues Crary, is central to this process. In this way, the dime museum embodies the <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>1900 moment<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>in that the  visual experience of the freak show begins to store more than itself in the creation of the American cultural imagination.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums simultaneously produced and were a product of a very specific kind of visuality, a visuality of modernization. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>Modernization,<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>says Dennett in her analysis of the freak show, <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>taught that the unimaginable was possible, and technology made material reality of ideas that had existed only in the real of the imagination<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>(29). Crary notes that the concept of modernization in visuality is useful only when it <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>encompasses not only structural changes in political and economic formations but also the immense reorganization of knowledge, languages, networks of spaces and communications, and subjectivity itself<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>(10).  The observer, argues Crary, is central to this process. In this way, the dime museum embodies the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>1900 moment<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>in that the  visual experience of the freak show begins to store more than itself in the creation of the American cultural imagination.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The seeing and beeing seen of dime museums can also be interpreted using Flusser's essay on masks. The person, argues Flusser, is a <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>nodal intersection in the mutually intersecting social feilds<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>that is given meaning and becomes visible by the wearing of masks.  The design of these masks is inter-subjective, says Flusser. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>The 'I' is not only the wearer of a mask but also a designer of masks for others. Thus I 'realize' myself not only whenever I dance in masks, but equally whenever I, together with others, design masks for others<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </del>(106).  The dime museum then, can be identified as a place where masks are both danced in an designed for others. Victorian Americans realized and affirmed their own masks by collectively designing freak masks for the performers. Simmilarly, the dime museum freak shows can be considered very black boxed in the sense that the 'mask' of the freak entirely conceals the humanity of the performer and the construction of a human curiosity.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The seeing and beeing seen of dime museums can also be interpreted using Flusser's essay on masks. The person, argues Flusser, is a <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>nodal intersection in the mutually intersecting social feilds<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>that is given meaning and becomes visible by the wearing of masks.  The design of these masks is inter-subjective, says Flusser. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>The 'I' is not only the wearer of a mask but also a designer of masks for others. Thus I 'realize' myself not only whenever I dance in masks, but equally whenever I, together with others, design masks for others<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot; </ins>(106).  The dime museum then, can be identified as a place where masks are both danced in an designed for others. Victorian Americans realized and affirmed their own masks by collectively designing freak masks for the performers. Simmilarly, the dime museum freak shows can be considered very black boxed in the sense that the 'mask' of the freak entirely conceals the humanity of the performer and the construction of a human curiosity.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L39" >Line 39:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 47:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Dennett, Andrea Stulman. ''Weird and Wonderful: The dime museum in America''. New York University Press, 1997.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Dennett, Andrea Stulman. ''Weird and Wonderful: The dime museum in America''. New York University Press, 1997.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Flusser, Vilem. ''The Shape of Things: A philosophy of design''. Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Flusser, Vilem. ''The Shape of Things: A philosophy of design''. Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Stillman, Johnathan. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>An American Showman: P.T. Barnum: Promoter of 'freak shows' for all the family<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>. ''Historian''; Autumn 2007; 95; Platinum Periodicals pg. 16.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Stillman, Johnathan. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>An American Showman: P.T. Barnum: Promoter of 'freak shows' for all the family<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">&quot;</ins>. ''Historian''; Autumn 2007; 95; Platinum Periodicals pg. 16.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Thompson, Rosemary Garland. ''Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring disability in American culture and literature''. Columbia University Press, 1997.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Thompson, Rosemary Garland. ''Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring disability in American culture and literature''. Columbia University Press, 1997.</div></td></tr>
</table>Egugecugehttp://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=9531&oldid=prevCHamilton at 14:48, 26 April 20102010-04-26T14:48:23Z<p></p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:48, 26 April 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L25" >Line 25:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 25:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The seeing and beeing seen of dime museums can also be interpreted using Flusser's essay on masks. The person, argues Flusser, is a "nodal intersection in the mutually intersecting social feilds" that is given meaning and becomes visible by the wearing of masks.  The design of these masks is inter-subjective, says Flusser. "The 'I' is not only the wearer of a mask but also a designer of masks for others. Thus I 'realize' myself not only whenever I dance in masks, but equally whenever I, together with others, design masks for others" (106).  The dime museum then, can be identified as a place where masks are both danced in an designed for others. Victorian Americans realized and affirmed their own masks by collectively designing freak masks for the performers. Simmilarly, the dime museum freak shows can be considered very black boxed in the sense that the 'mask' of the freak entirely conceals the humanity of the performer and the construction of a human curiosity.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The seeing and beeing seen of dime museums can also be interpreted using Flusser's essay on masks. The person, argues Flusser, is a "nodal intersection in the mutually intersecting social feilds" that is given meaning and becomes visible by the wearing of masks.  The design of these masks is inter-subjective, says Flusser. "The 'I' is not only the wearer of a mask but also a designer of masks for others. Thus I 'realize' myself not only whenever I dance in masks, but equally whenever I, together with others, design masks for others" (106).  The dime museum then, can be identified as a place where masks are both danced in an designed for others. Victorian Americans realized and affirmed their own masks by collectively designing freak masks for the performers. Simmilarly, the dime museum freak shows can be considered very black boxed in the sense that the 'mask' of the freak entirely conceals the humanity of the performer and the construction of a human curiosity.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">===Freak Shows and Photography===</del></div></td><td colspan="2"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">===Freak Shows and Photography===</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  "the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  "the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
</table>CHamiltonhttp://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=9529&oldid=prevCHamilton: /* Freak Shows and Photography */2010-04-26T14:47:51Z<p><span dir="auto"><span class="autocomment">Freak Shows and Photography</span></span></p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:47, 26 April 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L27" >Line 27:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 27:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  "the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]]</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]] </del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  "the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums, as cheap but respectable forms of entertainment, began to fall out of favor and disappear in the early twentieth century with the rise of film and vaudeville. Thus the freak shows were remediated and went to die in more low-brow forms of entertainment, specifically as sideshow acts in carnivals.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums, as cheap but respectable forms of entertainment, began to fall out of favor and disappear in the early twentieth century with the rise of film and vaudeville. Thus the freak shows were remediated and went to die in more low-brow forms of entertainment, specifically as sideshow acts in carnivals.</div></td></tr>
</table>CHamiltonhttp://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=9528&oldid=prevCHamilton at 14:47, 26 April 20102010-04-26T14:47:31Z<p></p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:47, 26 April 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L18" >Line 18:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 18:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>   </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>   </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The Bearded Lady: Gender and Chaos===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The Bearded Lady: Gender and Chaos===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:beardedlady.jpg|300px|thumb|left|<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Photography </del>by Matthew Brady.]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:beardedlady.jpg|300px|thumb|left|<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Photograph </ins>by Matthew Brady.]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>As Dinnett points out, the subtext of the dime museum freak show was "the fear of a world gone mad" (76). Freak shows blur the lines of what is normal and act as a visual representation of the chaos of a country mired in a civil war, turned upsidedown by indistrialization and a city flooded with the immigrant 'other'. The presence of the 'bearded lady' (a mainstay at Barnum's American Museum and dime museums accross the country) in popular culture "both calls into question the natural basis of gender roles and asserts the importance of these roles to Victorian spectators. Like other forms of bodily exposition, the bearded lady is deeply embroiled in the cultural expectations she defies" (Craton, 122). In this way, freak shows calm fears of chaos by blurring and reaffirming social norms. In this sense, the dime museum is both catoptric and dioptric. Catoptric, because the performers at the freak show obfuscate and reflect back to the observer the chaos of the world in which they live; and dioptric because through the performers, the observer sees the boundaries and restrictions of society.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>As Dinnett points out, the subtext of the dime museum freak show was "the fear of a world gone mad" (76). Freak shows blur the lines of what is normal and act as a visual representation of the chaos of a country mired in a civil war, turned upsidedown by indistrialization and a city flooded with the immigrant 'other'. The presence of the 'bearded lady' (a mainstay at Barnum's American Museum and dime museums accross the country) in popular culture "both calls into question the natural basis of gender roles and asserts the importance of these roles to Victorian spectators. Like other forms of bodily exposition, the bearded lady is deeply embroiled in the cultural expectations she defies" (Craton, 122). In this way, freak shows calm fears of chaos by blurring and reaffirming social norms. In this sense, the dime museum is both catoptric and dioptric. Catoptric, because the performers at the freak show obfuscate and reflect back to the observer the chaos of the world in which they live; and dioptric because through the performers, the observer sees the boundaries and restrictions of society.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L28" >Line 28:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 28:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  "the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic,  "the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div> </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]] </ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums, as cheap but respectable forms of entertainment, began to fall out of favor and disappear in the early twentieth century with the rise of film and vaudeville. Thus the freak shows were remediated and went to die in more low-brow forms of entertainment, specifically as sideshow acts in carnivals.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums, as cheap but respectable forms of entertainment, began to fall out of favor and disappear in the early twentieth century with the rise of film and vaudeville. Thus the freak shows were remediated and went to die in more low-brow forms of entertainment, specifically as sideshow acts in carnivals.</div></td></tr>
</table>CHamiltonhttp://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=9523&oldid=prevCHamilton at 14:44, 26 April 20102010-04-26T14:44:11Z<p></p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:44, 26 April 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L10" >Line 10:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 10:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Human Curiosities in Victorian America==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Human Curiosities in Victorian America==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>P.T. Barnum, one of the pioneers in mass culture, opened the American Museum in New York City in 1842. It is perhaps the first and certainly the most emblematic dime museum. Like all dime museums, the American Museum positioned itself as educational, family-friendly entertainment in the hopes of attracting patrons from a wide range of social class. So, in addition to featuring "siamese twins, fat boys, bearded ladies, rubber men, legless wonders and an array of midgets," the American Museum also skeuomorphically housed traditional museum artifacts and produced religious tableax and patriotic displays to cater to the Victorian cultural emphasis on temperance and the morality of of hard work (Dennett, 26). But dime museums were not only a New York phenomenon. By the late 19th century, dime museums were entertainment staples across the United States.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>P.T. Barnum, one of the pioneers in mass culture, opened the American Museum in New York City in 1842. It is perhaps the first and certainly the most emblematic dime museum. Like all dime museums, the American Museum positioned itself as educational, family-friendly entertainment in the hopes of attracting patrons from a wide range of social class. So, in addition to featuring "siamese twins, fat boys, bearded ladies, rubber men, legless wonders and an array of midgets," the American Museum also skeuomorphically housed traditional museum artifacts and produced religious tableax and patriotic displays to cater to the Victorian cultural emphasis on temperance and the <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">capitalist </ins>morality of of hard work (Dennett, 26). But dime museums were not only a New York phenomenon. By the late 19th century, dime museums were entertainment staples across the United States.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Building on the work of Foucault, Crary explores the role of the newly developed human sciences in the creation of "'realism' of mass visual culture" in the nineteenth century. The development of statistics and the subsequent "assessment of 'normality' in medicine, psychology and other fields" he says, "became and essential part of the shaping of the individual to the  requirements of institutional power in the nineteenth century, and it was through these disciplines that the subject in a sense became visible" (16). Dime museums, which aimed to walk the fine line between science and spectacle, positioned freaks as the subject of the audience's newly developed "subjective vision."</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Building on the work of Foucault, Crary explores the role of the newly developed human sciences in the creation of "'realism' of mass visual culture" in the nineteenth century. The development of statistics and the subsequent "assessment of 'normality' in medicine, psychology and other fields" he says, "became and essential part of the shaping of the individual to the  requirements of institutional power in the nineteenth century, and it was through these disciplines that the subject in a sense became visible" (16). Dime museums, which aimed to walk the fine line between science and spectacle, positioned freaks as the subject of the audience's newly developed "subjective vision."</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L19" >Line 19:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 19:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The Bearded Lady: Gender and Chaos===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===The Bearded Lady: Gender and Chaos===</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:beardedlady.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Photography by Matthew Brady.]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:beardedlady.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Photography by Matthew Brady.]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>As Dinnett points out, the subtext of the dime museum freak show was "the fear of a world gone mad" (76). Freak shows blur the lines of what is normal and act as a visual representation of the chaos of a country mired in a civil war, turned upsidedown by indistrialization and a city flooded with the immigrant 'other'. The presence of the 'bearded lady' (a mainstay at Barnum's American Museum and dime museums accross the country) in popular culture "both calls into question the natural basis of gender roles and asserts the importance of these roles to Victorian spectators. Like other forms of bodily exposition, the bearded lady is deeply embroiled in the cultural expectations she defies" (Craton, 122). In this way, freak shows calm fears of chaos by blurring and reaffirming social norms. In this sense, the dime museum <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">freak show </del>is both catoptric and dioptric. Catoptric, because the performers at the freak show obfuscate and reflect back to the observer the chaos of the world in which they live; and dioptric because through the performers, the observer sees the boundaries and restrictions of society.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>As Dinnett points out, the subtext of the dime museum freak show was "the fear of a world gone mad" (76). Freak shows blur the lines of what is normal and act as a visual representation of the chaos of a country mired in a civil war, turned upsidedown by indistrialization and a city flooded with the immigrant 'other'. The presence of the 'bearded lady' (a mainstay at Barnum's American Museum and dime museums accross the country) in popular culture "both calls into question the natural basis of gender roles and asserts the importance of these roles to Victorian spectators. Like other forms of bodily exposition, the bearded lady is deeply embroiled in the cultural expectations she defies" (Craton, 122). In this way, freak shows calm fears of chaos by blurring and reaffirming social norms. In this sense, the dime museum is both catoptric and dioptric. Catoptric, because the performers at the freak show obfuscate and reflect back to the observer the chaos of the world in which they live; and dioptric because through the performers, the observer sees the boundaries and restrictions of society.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Freak Shows and Modern Visuality==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Freak Shows and Modern Visuality==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums simultaneously produced and were a product of a very specific kind of visuality, a visuality of modernization. "Modernization," says Dennett in her analysis of the freak show, "taught that the unimaginable was possible, and technology made material reality of ideas that had existed only in the real of the imagination" (29). Crary notes that the concept of modernization in visuality is useful only when it "encompasses not only structural changes in political and economic formations but also the immense reorganization of knowledge, languages, networks of spaces and communications, and subjectivity itself" (10).  The observer, argues Crary, is central to this process. In this way, the dime museum embodies the "1900 moment" in that the  visual experience of the freak show begins to store more than itself in the creation of the American cultural imagination.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums simultaneously produced and were a product of a very specific kind of visuality, a visuality of modernization. "Modernization," says Dennett in her analysis of the freak show, "taught that the unimaginable was possible, and technology made material reality of ideas that had existed only in the real of the imagination" (29). Crary notes that the concept of modernization in visuality is useful only when it "encompasses not only structural changes in political and economic formations but also the immense reorganization of knowledge, languages, networks of spaces and communications, and subjectivity itself" (10).  The observer, argues Crary, is central to this process. In this way, the dime museum embodies the "1900 moment" in that the  visual experience of the freak show begins to store more than itself in the creation of the American cultural imagination.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The seeing and beeing seen of dime museums can also be interpreted using Flusser's essay on masks. The person, argues Flusser, is a "nodal intersection in the mutually intersecting social feilds" that is given meaning and becomes visible by the wearing of masks.  The design of these masks is inter-subjective, says Flusser. "The 'I' is not only the wearer of a mask but also a designer of masks for others. Thus I 'realize' myself not only whenever I dance in masks, but equally whenever I, together with others, design masks for others" (106).  The dime museum then, can be identified as a place where masks are both danced in an designed for others. Victorian Americans realized and affirmed their own masks by collectively designing freak masks for the performers. Simmilarly, the dime museum freak shows can be considered very black boxed in the sense that the 'mask' of the freak entirely conceals the humanity of the performer.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The seeing and beeing seen of dime museums can also be interpreted using Flusser's essay on masks. The person, argues Flusser, is a "nodal intersection in the mutually intersecting social feilds" that is given meaning and becomes visible by the wearing of masks.  The design of these masks is inter-subjective, says Flusser. "The 'I' is not only the wearer of a mask but also a designer of masks for others. Thus I 'realize' myself not only whenever I dance in masks, but equally whenever I, together with others, design masks for others" (106).  The dime museum then, can be identified as a place where masks are both danced in an designed for others. Victorian Americans realized and affirmed their own masks by collectively designing freak masks for the performers. Simmilarly, the dime museum freak shows can be considered very black boxed in the sense that the 'mask' of the freak entirely conceals the humanity of the performer <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">and the construction of a human curiosity</ins>.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===Freak Shows and Photography===</div></td></tr>
</table>CHamiltonhttp://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=9522&oldid=prevCHamilton: /* Human Curiosities in Victorian America */2010-04-26T14:38:00Z<p><span dir="auto"><span class="autocomment">Human Curiosities in Victorian America</span></span></p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:38, 26 April 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L10" >Line 10:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 10:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Human Curiosities in Victorian America==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Human Curiosities in Victorian America==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>P.T. Barnum, one of the pioneers <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">of </del>mass culture, opened the American Museum in New York City in 1842. It is perhaps the first and certainly the most emblematic dime museum. Like all dime museums, the American Museum positioned itself as educational, family-friendly entertainment in the hopes of attracting patrons from a wide range of social class. So, in addition to featuring "siamese twins, fat boys, bearded ladies, rubber men, legless wonders and an array of midgets," the American Museum also skeuomorphically housed traditional museum artifacts and produced religious tableax and patriotic displays to cater to the Victorian cultural emphasis on temperance and the morality of of hard work (Dennett, 26). But dime museums were not only a New York phenomenon. By the late 19th century, dime museums were entertainment staples across the United States.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>P.T. Barnum, one of the pioneers <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">in </ins>mass culture, opened the American Museum in New York City in 1842. It is perhaps the first and certainly the most emblematic dime museum. Like all dime museums, the American Museum positioned itself as educational, family-friendly entertainment in the hopes of attracting patrons from a wide range of social class. So, in addition to featuring "siamese twins, fat boys, bearded ladies, rubber men, legless wonders and an array of midgets," the American Museum also skeuomorphically housed traditional museum artifacts and produced religious tableax and patriotic displays to cater to the Victorian cultural emphasis on temperance and the morality of of hard work (Dennett, 26). But dime museums were not only a New York phenomenon. By the late 19th century, dime museums were entertainment staples across the United States.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Building on the work of Foucault, Crary explores the role of the newly developed human sciences in the creation of "'realism' of mass visual culture" in the nineteenth century. The development of statistics and the subsequent "assessment of 'normality' in medicine, psychology and other fields" he says, "became and essential part of the shaping of the individual to the  requirements of institutional power in the nineteenth century, and it was through these disciplines that the subject in a sense became visible" (16). Dime museums, which aimed to walk the fine line between science and spectacle, positioned freaks as the subject of the audience's newly developed "subjective vision."</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Building on the work of Foucault, Crary explores the role of the newly developed human sciences in the creation of "'realism' of mass visual culture" in the nineteenth century. The development of statistics and the subsequent "assessment of 'normality' in medicine, psychology and other fields" he says, "became and essential part of the shaping of the individual to the  requirements of institutional power in the nineteenth century, and it was through these disciplines that the subject in a sense became visible" (16). Dime museums, which aimed to walk the fine line between science and spectacle, positioned freaks as the subject of the audience's newly developed "subjective vision."</div></td></tr>
</table>CHamiltonhttp://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=9518&oldid=prevCHamilton: /* References */2010-04-26T14:35:53Z<p><span dir="auto"><span class="autocomment">References</span></span></p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:35, 26 April 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L33" >Line 33:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 33:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==References==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==References==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Bogdan, Robert. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>Freak Show: Presenting human oddities for amusement and profit<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>.  University of Chicago Press, 1988.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">* </ins>Bogdan, Robert. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>Freak Show: Presenting human oddities for amusement and profit<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>.  University of Chicago Press, 1988.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Chemers, Michael M. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>Staging Stigma: A critical examination of the American freak show<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">* </ins>Chemers, Michael M. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>Staging Stigma: A critical examination of the American freak show<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Crary, Johnathan. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>Techniques of the Observer: On vision and modernity in the nineteenth century<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>. MIT Press, 1992.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">* </ins>Crary, Johnathan. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>Techniques of the Observer: On vision and modernity in the nineteenth century<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>. MIT Press, 1992.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Craton, Lilian. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>The VIctorian Freak Show: The significance of disability and physical differences in 19th century fiction<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>. Cambria Press 2009.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">* </ins>Craton, Lilian. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>The VIctorian Freak Show: The significance of disability and physical differences in 19th century fiction<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>. Cambria Press 2009.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dennett, Andrea Stulman. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>Weird and Wonderful: The dime museum in America<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>. New York University Press, 1997.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">* </ins>Dennett, Andrea Stulman. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>Weird and Wonderful: The dime museum in America<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>. New York University Press, 1997.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Flusser, Vilem. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>The Shape of Things: A philosophy of design<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>. Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">* </ins>Flusser, Vilem. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>The Shape of Things: A philosophy of design<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>. Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Stillman, Johnathan. "An American Showman: P.T. Barnum: Promoter of 'freak shows' for all the family". Historian; Autumn 2007; 95; Platinum Periodicals pg. 16.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">* </ins>Stillman, Johnathan. "An American Showman: P.T. Barnum: Promoter of 'freak shows' for all the family". <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>Historian<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>; Autumn 2007; 95; Platinum Periodicals pg. 16.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Thompson, Rosemary Garland. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring disability in American culture and literature<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</del>. Columbia University Press, 1997.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">* </ins>Thompson, Rosemary Garland. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring disability in American culture and literature<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">''</ins>. Columbia University Press, 1997.</div></td></tr>
</table>CHamiltonhttp://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=9516&oldid=prevCHamilton at 14:33, 26 April 20102010-04-26T14:33:37Z<p></p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:33, 26 April 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L31" >Line 31:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 31:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Death of the Dime Museum==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums, as cheap but respectable forms of entertainment, began to fall out of favor and disappear in the early twentieth century with the rise of film and vaudeville. Thus the freak shows were remediated and went to die in more low-brow forms of entertainment, specifically as sideshow acts in carnivals.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Dime museums, as cheap but respectable forms of entertainment, began to fall out of favor and disappear in the early twentieth century with the rise of film and vaudeville. Thus the freak shows were remediated and went to die in more low-brow forms of entertainment, specifically as sideshow acts in carnivals.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">==References==</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Bogdan, Robert. "Freak Show: Presenting human oddities for amusement and profit".  University of Chicago Press, 1988.</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Chemers, Michael M. "Staging Stigma: A critical examination of the American freak show". Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Crary, Johnathan. "Techniques of the Observer: On vision and modernity in the nineteenth century". MIT Press, 1992.</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Craton, Lilian. "The VIctorian Freak Show: The significance of disability and physical differences in 19th century fiction". Cambria Press 2009. </ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Dennett, Andrea Stulman. "Weird and Wonderful: The dime museum in America". New York University Press, 1997.</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Flusser, Vilem. "The Shape of Things: A philosophy of design". Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999.</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Stillman, Johnathan. "An American Showman: P.T. Barnum: Promoter of 'freak shows' for all the family". Historian; Autumn 2007; 95; Platinum Periodicals pg. 16.</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Thompson, Rosemary Garland. "Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring disability in American culture and literature". Columbia University Press, 1997.</ins></div></td></tr>
</table>CHamiltonhttp://www.cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=9507&oldid=prevCHamilton at 14:18, 26 April 20102010-04-26T14:18:00Z<p></p>
<table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'>
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr style='vertical-align: top;'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;">Revision as of 14:18, 26 April 2010</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="L6" >Line 6:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 6:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Historical and Political Context==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==Historical and Political Context==</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The display of non-normative human bodies, or 'freak shows', have their modern roots in 16th century English fairs. But dime museums,  which emerged in the United States in the mid-19th century, are  the more immediate remediation of the private museums that emerged after the Revolutionary War. These private museums were operated by individuals hoping to earn a living in the unstable economy  by opening their private collections to the public. Unlike most museums, which were based in the ideals of the Enlightenment and did not rely on the income from ticket sales, private museums had to display more sensational artifacts and spectacles to stay competitive.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The display of non-normative human bodies, or 'freak shows', have their modern roots in 16th century English fairs. But dime museums,  which emerged in the United States in the mid-19th century, are  the more immediate remediation of the private museums that emerged after the Revolutionary War. These private museums were operated by individuals hoping to earn a living in the unstable economy  by opening their private collections to the public. Unlike most museums, which were based in the ideals of the Enlightenment and did not rely on the income from ticket sales, private museums had to display more sensational artifacts and spectacles to stay competitive.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Dimemuseumad.JPG|thumb|<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">right</del>|]]</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Dimemuseumad.JPG|thumb|<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">left</ins>|]]</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With the rise of urbanization and industrialization, antebellum America faced major social and economic turmoil. Immigration and alienation aggravated the problems of city life, particularly in New York city, the dime museum capital of the world. "Demographic growth and industrialization destroyed local communities, produced slums, and threatened to change the structure of the nuclear family" (Dennett, 2). As Craton points out, Gramsci and other Marxist theorists explain that "states require a shared, culturally determined matrix of thought and values through which the capitalist power structure gain the consent of those it governs: hegemonic ideas seep into every aspect of human culture to create an intellectual framework that supports the values and power of the dominant class" (6).  Thus, in the chaos of mid-19th century New York, the dime museums emerges to fill this void and build a unified mass culture.  </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>With the rise of urbanization and industrialization, antebellum America faced major social and economic turmoil. Immigration and alienation aggravated the problems of city life, particularly in New York city, the dime museum capital of the world. "Demographic growth and industrialization destroyed local communities, produced slums, and threatened to change the structure of the nuclear family" (Dennett, 2). As Craton points out, Gramsci and other Marxist theorists explain that "states require a shared, culturally determined matrix of thought and values through which the capitalist power structure gain the consent of those it governs: hegemonic ideas seep into every aspect of human culture to create an intellectual framework that supports the values and power of the dominant class" (6).  Thus, in the chaos of mid-19th century New York, the dime museums emerges to fill this void and build a unified mass culture.  </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
</table>CHamilton