 Aside from the different attractions, the Museum also promoted educational ends, including natural history in its menageries, aquarium (which featured a large white whale), and taxidermy exhibits; history in its paintings, wax figures, and memorabilia; and temperance reform and Shakespearean dramas in the above described "Lecture Room" or theater.It was also the first museum to put human oddities on display as an organized freak show.It was the American Museum that began the modern-day trend of exploiting the human body for the sake of mass entertainment.