Maryland Newsline

This Is No Sideshow: The American Dime Museum

Baltimore's American Dime Museum -- the only museum of its kind in the nation -- is a collection of artifacts from 19th- and early 20th-century sideshows and carnivals.

The museum, open since 1999, is small but packed with everything from mummies to arts and crafts to freaks of nature.

The Dime Museum harkens back to the days of promoters like P.T. Barnum, who took sideshows around the country with his traveling carnival, says co-proprietor Richard Horne.

On average, 100 visitors stop by on weekend days -- its most heavily trafficked -- to sample the museum's eclectic offerings, he says.

AUDIO: Visitors to the Dime Museum are greeted by old-fashioned carnival music.

Copyright © 2003 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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