Dime museums were institutions that were briefly popular at the end of the 19th century in the United States. Designed as centers for entertainment and moral education for the working class (lowbrow), the museums were distinctly different from upper-middle class' cultural events (highbrow). In urban centers like New York City, where many immigrants settled, dime museums were popular and cheap entertainment. The social trend reached its peak during the Progressive era (ca. 1890–1920).
P.T. Barnum founded the first Dime Museum in 1841, called the "American Museum". P.T. Barnum and Charles Willson Peale introduced the so-called "Edutainement" which was a moralistic education realized through sensational freakshows, theater and circus performances, and many other means of entertainment. The "American Museum" burned down in 1865.
For many years in the basement of the Playland Arcade in Times Square in New York City, Hubert's Museum featured acts such as sword swallower Lady Estelene, Congo The Jungle Creep, a flea circus, a half-man half-woman, and magicians such as Earl "Presto" Johnson.
Later, in Times Square, mouse pitchman Tommy Laird opened a dime museum that featured Tisha Booty "the Human Pin Cushion, and several magicians including Tommy Laird, Lou Lancaster, Criss Capehart, Dorothy Dietrich, Magician Dick Brooks, and others.
In Baltimore, Maryland, the American Dime Museum operated for eight years before closing permanently and auctioning off its exhibits in late February 2007.