In 1842, Dr. J. Griffin arrived in New
York City from London
and promptly checked into his hotel.
Soon after, he was being swarmed by reporters who were tipped off to his
strange cargo by foreign correspondents.
It seemed that Dr. Griffin has in his possession the remains of a
mermaid that he had acquired while exploring the Fiji islands. Dr. Griffin begrudgingly showed the reporters
his "mermaid," and the news spread like wildfire.
P.T. Barnum, the venerated American showman, visited the
offices of all the major newspapers in the city, telling anybody who he would
listen that he tried to get Griffin to display
the mermaid at Barnum's American Museum , but Griffin had refused. Barnum then offered the
newspapers the use of a woodcut drawing of a beautiful mermaid he had planned
to use in the advertisements of the attraction that wasn't to be. With each paper thinking they had scooped a
story, they all printed Barnum's woodcut mermaid. Around the city, Barnum also distributed
thousands of pamphlets he had made depicting the sensual mermaid. Soon the entire city was talking about the
mythical creature.
Unknown to the public, Dr. J. Griffin was a fraud. In fact, his real name was Levi Lyman and he
was Barnum's accomplice in the hoax.
Barnum wrote letters to the papers, tipping them off to "Dr.
Griffin" and his unique find as a way to build up hype for the
attraction.
The Fiji Mermaid was nothing more than an immature monkey's
head & torso sewn onto the lower half of a fish and covered in papier-mâché
to give it a mummified look. Barnum did not create the mermaid but rather
leased it from Moses Kimball, a collector of curiosities from Boston . Kimball had purchased it from the son of a
sailor. The sailor had purchased it in
1822 from Dutch merchants who had acquired it somewhere in Japan . The sailor paid $6,000 for the mermaid, which
was a huge sum of money back in those days.
Believing he could make more money off exhibiting the mermaid in London , the sailor sold
his ship in order to pay for the mermaid.
Unfortunately, he was only co-owner of the ship. When he arrived in London , he let British naturalists inspect
his acquisition. They thoroughly
debunked its authenticity and word got out to the press that it was a fake, diminishing
public interest in it. The sailor was
sued by the other boat owners and he was forced to work for them without pay
until his debt was paid. He died long
before that could happen and his son sold the mermaid to Kimball for a fraction
of what his father paid.
For a much more detailed (and better written) history of the Feejee Mermaid, including the fate of this historic piece, check out The Museum of Hoaxes website.
And for detailed instructions on how to make your own fiji mermaid, check out this blog.
And for detailed instructions on how to make your own fiji mermaid, check out this blog.