Lecture Room, Barnum's American Museum, New York City

The Lecture Room of the American Museum on Broadway. Illustration published in the Gleason's Pictorial, January 29, 1853 (Boston : M. M. Ballou, 1854-1859). Drawn by John Reuben Chapin (1823-1894) and engraved by Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904).

On the right, the stage and auditorium of the Lecture Room, published in the Barnum's American Museum Illustrated, 1850. The proscenium consisted of stage doors and private boxes, between Corinthian pilasters, white and gold. Crimson damask papers covered the walls and velvet of the same hue covered the seats. Gilt chandeliers lighted with gas were suspended on each side of the proscenium.

Here, some text from the article in the Gleason's Pictorial (1853) that accompanies this illustration: «engraving gives a comprehensive view of the interior of the Lecture Room, which is one of the most elegant and recherche halls of its class to be found anywhere. It is fitted up in the most gorgeous style, yet so arranged as not to offend the eye with a multiplicity of ornament. All is harmonious, and there is nothing to detract from the general beauty of the whole. Of the performances in this room it is scarcely necessary for us to speak. The truth is, the public had long felt the want of a place of public entertainment in which a proper respect for the decencies and decorum of life were judiciously mingled with the broadest elements of mirth, and the refined vagaries of the most exuberant fancy. We have furnished in this lecture-room just such a place.−Every species of amusement, "from grave to gay, from lively to severe," is furnished−but so judiciously purged of every semblance of immorality, that the most fastidious may listen with satisfaction, and the most sensitive witness without fear.

In some measure the same influence is exercised by the American Museum, in New York, as is the case with the Boston Museum. Thousands, who from motives of delicacy, cannot bring 'themselves to attend theatrical representations in a theatre, find it easy enough to reconcile a museum, and its vaudevilles and plays to their consciences. We confess that it is very difficult for us to make a distinction between the two, when the same plays are performed, the same actors employed, and the same effect given. Thousands, who from motives of delicacy, cannot bring 'themselves to attend theatrical representations in a theatre, find it easy enough to reconcile a museum, and its vaudevilles and plays to their consciences. We confess that it is very difficult for us to make a distinction between the two, when the same plays are performed, the same actors employed, and the same effect given.»