003 - Jumbo the Elephant

05/11/18 • 13 min

Curio: History, Museums, and the Things We Put in Them

Jaybee's away this week so it's 100% Shan time. Learn about Jumbo the Elephant, P.T. Barnum, and his involvement in one of the greatest pissfights in museum history.

Resources:

McLellan, Andrew. (2012). P.T. Barnum, Jumbo the Elephant, and the Barnum Museum of Natural History at Tuft's University. Journal of the History of Collections 24(1).

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/11/jumbo-the-elephant-the-afterlife

https://www.biography.com/people/pt-barnum-9199751

Jaybee's away this week so it's 100% Shan time. Learn about Jumbo the Elephant, P.T. Barnum, and his involvement in one of the greatest pissfights in museum history.

Resources:

McLellan, Andrew. (2012). P.T. Barnum, Jumbo the Elephant, and the Barnum Museum of Natural History at Tuft's University. Journal of the History of Collections 24(1).

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/11/jumbo-the-elephant-the-afterlife

https://www.biography.com/people/pt-barnum-9199751

Previous Episode

002 - The Burke Pocketbook

Shan fills Jaybee in on all the gruesome details of the Burke and Hare murders, and the horrific ways they're remembered in some museum collections. We're talking human leather (ew). Grave robbing, dissection, and human salads. Listen if you dare.

Resources:

Listen to another podcast! https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/most-notorious-a-true-crime-history-podcast/e/50827518

http://www.businessinsider.com/book-bound-in-serial-killers-human-skin-2014-11

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-lindsey-fitzharris/holding-a-book-bound-in-human-skin_b_3772196.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27903742

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/exm3bk/binding-books-with-human-skin-135

https://books.google.ca/books?id=8LoDAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=burke+and+hare&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjy_o3QkI3aAhUD2IMKHRztDdM4ChDoAQgzMAM#v=onepage&q=burke%20and%20hare&f=false

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/01/burke-hare-masks

https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/anatomy-280212

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-death-mask-of-william-burke-47205

Find "The Anatome Murders" &c by Lisa Rosner in a library near you:

http://www.worldcat.org/title/anatomy-murders-being-the-true-and-spectacular-history-of-edinburghs-notorious-burke-and-hare-and-of-the-man-of-science-who-abetted-them-in-the-commission-of-their-most-heinous-crimes/oclc/320800017

Next Episode

004 - Doomtown Mannequins

It's da bomb. Shan and Jaybee launch into the nuclear age, learning all about the Nevada Test Site and the development of radioactive technology, and how it relates to a host of irradiated mannequins of the National Museum of Atomic Testing. Learn about all the weird ways people used to ingest radium! Atomize Vegans! Bleeding earballs! And the tragic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the powerful design of the Hiroshima Peace Pavilion.

It's a party mix of laughter, deep, deep horror, and sadness, on this week's Curio.

Resources:

http://www.westmuse.org/sites/westmuse.org/files/documents/WMA2014/Sessions/WMA2014_CollectionsThatKill-Notes.pdf

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/152-1411/features/2594-united-states-atomic-age-doom-town

http://time.com/3675016/nevada-a-bomb-test/

http://www.businessinsider.com/operation-doorstep-photos-2016-3#this-group-of-mannequins-is-hiding-under-the-stairs-in-a-basement-likely-to-test-if-this-was-an-effective-strategy-6

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/sep/21/building-the-atom-bomb-the-full-story-of-the-nevada-test-site

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Test_Site#Areas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury,_Nevada

http://www.dark-tourism.com/index.php/15-countries/individual-chapters/758-nevada-nuclear-test-site

https://www.globalzero.org/blog/how-many-nukes-would-it-take-render-earth-uninhabitable

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_technology