Weird and WonderfulDioramas and panoramas, freaks and magicians, waxworks and menageries, obscure relics and stuffed animals a dazzling assortment of curiosities attracted the gaze of the nineteenth century spectator at the dime museum. This distinctly American phenomenon was unprecedented in both the diversity of its amusements and in its democratic appeal, with audiences traversing the boundaries of ethnicity, gender, and class. Andrea Stulman Dennett's Weird and