Attract First, Please Later: Museum Design Lessons from P.T. Barnum

Phineas Taylor Barnum never really said “There’s a sucker born every minute,” (that’s an urban legend, sucker) but the idea does seem to have been at the core of his business model. Although forever associated with the circus, Barnum spent a substantial part of his career as a museum director in Manhattan, attracting 38 million paying visitors to his American Museum between 1841 and 1865 (a time when the population of the United States was under 32 million).