The "Extraordinary Japanese Mermaid” of the Milwaukee Public Museum, by Karl Wolff

Is it any wonder that the feejee mermaid is the official mascot of showhistory.com? Granted ours is a very strange, glass-eyed, cute(?) version of the form imitated and re-imagined a thousand times since Barnum. Nonetheless as classic objects of wonder, author Wolff reaffirms through his scholarship that these "little beasts" are still very much part of our culture. For more information on Feejee's and their ilk, see our page on Gaffs.