Now on Exhibition… Burns’ American Museum… Old Ocean’s Greatest Wonders… The Great Leathery Turtle… Sea Serpent… Blue Shark… The Terror of the Seas!… etc.
Ephemera.
( n.d.), n.p.
Single sheet, 7 x 21 inches, printed both sides. b/w wood engraved illustration.
Price: $1500
I can find no trace of Burns’ American Museum, or of this advertising piece. Not in Worldcat or AAS catalogs. The only clue in the text is the author’s mention of “Johnson’s Natural History,” which would date it after 1867. Of note is the sea serpent which “resembles the Marine Turtle, the Seal and the Black Fish, while its shoulders resemble those of a Human Being.” Other zoological wonders include a horned toad, a flying squirrel and an albino woodchuck. This was apparently a traveling show, since there are blanks at the bottom of the poster for street address and date. The writer closes, “A Liberal Price Paid for Curiosities of all Kinds.” Outer edge chipped. Old holes at top and bottom, with no loss of text.