Maryland Newsline

This Is No Sideshow: The American Dime Museum

Everyone's heard of flying squirrels, but this "rare specimen" is unique. Obviously contrived displays like this one were (and still are) common in sideshows, according to the museum's information plaques.

The museum's grizzled proprietors, Horne and Taylor, started the museum after a lifelong interest in collecting oddities such as these, Horne says. The last similar museum in New York closed in the 1970s, he says. The American Dime Museum has proven popular, listing magicians Penn and Teller and Baltimore TV personality Marty Bass as members of its advisory board.

AUDIO: Visitors are invited to "step right up" to see the oddities of the Dime Museum.

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

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