The FeeJee Mermaid
P. T. Barnum drew crowds to see a mermaid that was really half a monkey and half a fish.
What was reported
In 1842, the showman P. T. Barnum exhibited a 'Feejee Mermaid' in New York, said to have been caught near Fiji. Posters showed a beautiful woman with a fish's tail. What visitors saw was a shrivelled body about three feet long, with a monkey's head and torso and a fish's tail.
It drew huge crowds, and the original was lost, probably in a museum fire.
Explanations offered
It was a made-up object, probably from Japan or the East Indies, where such figures were crafted from the upper half of a monkey sewn to the tail of a fish. Similar 'mermaids' are held in several museums today.
- When
- 1842
- Where
- Barnum's American Museum, New York, USA
- Witnesses
- Crowds of paying visitors
- Status
- Hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.