Legendary showman and prankster who founded the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Earlier in his career he ran a museum which he used to display hoaxes and human curiosities such as General Tom Thumb and Commodore Nutt. He founded a local weekly newspaper and other small businesses in his early years. In 1842 he introduced his first major hoax, a creature with the head of a monkey and the tail of a fish, known as the "Feejee" mermaid.
