Dr. Weldon's Microscope at Scudder's Museum

Handbill. The mixing of science and entertainment is something the dime museums excelled at. Giving the public something "educational" that employed the then cutting-edge field of microscopy was an inspired idea. The wild animalcules who inhabit a drop of water proved to be fascinating to the general public. Weldon's exhibit was the first its kind in America, using his "Original Grand Hydro-Oxygen Microscope." Beginning in 1835, Weldon lugged the huge apparatus into Scudder's American Museum.

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