The Market Museum was established in 1804 by Philip Woods in Market Square, Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, adjacent to Faneuil Hall

Faneuil Hall

Faneuil Hall , located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, has been a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742. It was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain, and is now part of...

. Also called the Boston Museum, it featured displays of "wax figures, pictures, natural and fanciful curiosities -- such as have not been exhibited in this town before" and was "opened for the inspection of the public every day, from 9 o'clock in the morning until 9 in the evening."

Highlights included:

• "The Magical Deotric, which represents a variety of elegant views of the most populous cities on the globe"
• "Narne's new patent electrical machine"
• "Performance of the phantasmagoria
  Phantasmagoria
  Phantasmagoria can refer to:* Phantasmagoria, a type of show using an optical device to display moving images* Phantasmagoria, a video game* Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh, a video game sequel to Phantasmagoria...
  
  , or German ghosts"
• "The great elephant Horatio"
• "Grand cosmorama
  Cosmorama
  A cosmorama is an exhibition of perspective pictures of different places in the world, usually world landmarks. Careful illumination and lenses are used to give the images greater realism....
  
   of Montreal
  Montreal
  Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
  
   & its environs"
• "Live alligator"
• "A young whale, just brought in from sea"
• "Live bear"
• "Skin of the sea-elephant
  Elephant seal
  Elephant seals are large, oceangoing seals in the genus Mirounga. There are two species: the northern elephant seal and the southern elephant seal . Both were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but numbers have since recovered...
  
   in natural preservation, which measured 80 feet in length and 6 feet around the body"
• Pictorial "likenesses of generals Washington
  George Washington
  George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
  
   and Green
  Nathanael Greene
  Nathanael Greene was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. When the war began, Greene was a militia private, the lowest rank possible; he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer. Many places in the United...
  
  "
• "Wax figures, viz. -- Tupia, prince of Atooi; Wynee, a female Codiac princess, native of Owyhee
  Hawaiian Islands
  The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
  
  ; ... a chief of Nootka Sound
  Nootka Sound
  Nootka Sound is a complex inlet or sound of the Pacific Ocean on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Historically also known as King George's Sound, as a strait it separates Vancouver Island and Nootka Island.-History:The inlet is part of the...
  
  ; the 3 abovementioned figures are likenesses of the respective persons, and dressed in the original dresses, worn by them in 1788. The Boston beauty, an excellent likeness of a young lady in this town. A likeness of an ancient musketeer, who was in the service of Charles the 5th
  Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
  Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
  
   -- who has one of the original muskets, then used, and is properly dressed and equipped with bandaliers &c. The beautiful scene of Othello and Desdamona, taken from the Tragedy of Othello
  Othello
  The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
  
  . The arms of the United States supported by Liberty and Justice, two wax-figures. Mungo, a black boy, attacked by an alligator, &c. &c."

On the premises Woods sometimes sold goods such as "cement" and "electrical machines." He also treated medical problems: "Mr. Woods tenders his services to those ladies or gentlemen who stand in need of medical electricity, and would inform them that he cures the gout, rheumatic complaints, dystentary, toothache, ague

Fever

Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...

, asthma, felon or whitlow

Whitlow

A whitlow or felon is an infection of the tip of the finger. The terms are also sometimes misapplied to paronychia, which is an infection of the tissue at the side or base of the nail....

, lock-jaw

Tetanus

Tetanus is a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The primary symptoms are caused by tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin produced by the Gram-positive, rod-shaped, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani...

, pally, quincy, ricketts

Rickets

Rickets is a softening of bones in children due to deficiency or impaired metabolism of vitamin D, magnesium , phosphorus or calcium, potentially leading to fractures and deformity. Rickets is among the most frequent childhood diseases in many developing countries...

, St. Vitus' Dance

Sydenham's chorea

Sydenham's chorea or chorea minor is a disease characterized by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements affecting primarily the face, feet and hands. Sydenham's chorea results from childhood infection with Group A beta-hemolytic Streptococci and is reported to occur in 20-30% of patients with...

, and a variety of other complaints incident to the human body."



The museum closed by 1822, when the newly formed New-England Museum

New-England Museum (Boston)

The New-England Museum in Boston, Massachusetts was established at 76 Court Street by Ethan A. Greenwood, Peter B. Bazin, John Dwight and Samuel Jackson. It featured displays of fine art, natural history specimens, wax figures, and other curiosities...

acquired its collection.

Further reading

• Arthur W. Brayley. Woods' Boston Museum. The Bostonian v.2, no.2, 1895.