Dr. Kahn’s Museum Of Anatomy Pamphlet

Description

Dr. Kahn’s Museum of Anatomy and Medical Science Original Pamphlet, c. 1905-1914.

 

Exceedingly scarce original dime museum pamphlet promoting the attractions of “Dr. Robert J. Kahn”, sometimes known as “Louis J. Kahn”, and possibly also “Louis J. Jordan”.

Using the same name as the infamous London attraction closed for indecency decades earlier, the New York City successor, one of several similar American attractions opened by members of the Jordan-Kahn family, attracted equally excited attention during its more-than-40-year reign as “Gotham’s Greatest Attraction”.

“Dr. Louis J. Kahn” and Louis J. Jordan were likely the same person using separate identities for legal protection. When Dr. Kahn’s was raided along with three other museums in January 1888, Jordan escaped arrest because “there is no proof that such a person is connected with the place”. However, the seizure of the museum’s wax sculpture forced its close for a time, moving from Broadway to Bowery Street for its
1905 reopening. The museum would move once again before closing in 1930.

Remembered as equal parts “pretentious” and “respectable” the museum’s morbid collection focused heavily on representation of the human reproductive system, STDs, and bladder stones. As the tag line “For Men Only” implies, Dr. Kahn’s Museum of Anatomy and Medical Science was intended to be both terrifying and titillating, perfectly capturing the era of the post-Barnum Dime Museum where “education” and entertainment came together to form something not unlike a Sideshow.

Dating from the period the Museum occupied 312 Bowery (between 1905 and 1914) this piece is remarkably well preserved for its age. Despite searching for comparable pieces, no other surviving examples have been found.

8” x 11”. Two-sided printed sheet of thin paper.Darkening along to edge, printed text and imagery remains vivid and clear. Losses along one side of bottom edge of up to 1/2” in places, mostly affecting margins with slight loss of border. Two creases, horizontal and vertical, left over from old folds. Small tear of 1.5” in length running from the top of the vertical crease down. Good condition.

 

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