George Washington’s 161-year- old nurse
In 1835, Barnum somehow managed to persuade the public that a black woman called Joice Heth was the 161-year- old former nurse of George Washington. And, when interest in Heth waned, he came up with the idea of exposing her as an automaton. “What purports to be a remarkably old woman is simply… made up of whalebone, India-rubber, and numerous springs ingeniously put together, and made to move at the slightest touch, according to the will of the operator.”
The ruse worked perfectly. By inviting viewers to determine for themselves whether Heth was a flesh-and-blood supercentenarian or a mechanical illusion, Barnum fastened on to a hoax strategy that would serve him only too well in the future.