Fidji Mermaid, freshly caught in Atlantis

This object is a hand crafted curiosity combining a small mammalian torso with a fish tail, made to simulate a mermaid. Such “Fidji” or “Feejee” mermaids were popular from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries in cabinets of curiosity and traveling exhibitions, where they fed fascination with natural history, exploration, and the exotic.

More than a simple hoax, the Fidji mermaid reflects the period’s appetite for marvels and the blurred line between science, myth, and spectacle.