Barnum was not the first to exhibit such a taxidermy creation (he got his mermaid from Boston showman Moses Kimball with whom he entered into a contract for its display), but he was the most successful in promoting it. Perhaps hoping to mimic his success or pay tribute to the great man, generations of showmen after Barnum acquired their own Fiji mermaids, so that now a collection of oddities isn't complete without one.

Here I have contrasted the beautiful and the hideous by placing Barnum's mermaid in a situation borrowed from a Raphael painting. The woman who once calmly held a unicorn must now contend with an entirely different sort of mythical creature.