Scudder's American Museum
Scudder's American Museum was a museum located in New York City from 1810 to 1841, when it was purchased by P.T. Barnum and transformed into the very successful Barnum's American Museum. Before Scudder The roots of the museum date back to 1791, when the "American Museum" was founded by John Pintard "under the patronage of the Tammany Society." It was located at 57 King Street, with Pintard serving as secretary and Gardner Baker (more of a showman between the two) as keeper. The museum was moved to a building at the intersection of Pearl and Broad streets by 1794 called the "Exchange". It occupied a thirty-by-sixty foot room with a high ceiling, and later opened a second room including a menagerie. It was called "Baker's American Museum" after Baker took control of it from the Tammany Society in 1795. Relying now only on ticket sales to finance operations, he raised admission prices and kept attempting to add new curiosities to draw visitors. After Baker died in 1798, and his widow died in 1800, the collection was purchased by William I. Waldron. It then came into the hands of painter Edward Savage, who opened the "Columbian Gallery of Painting and City