Cardiff Giants T-Shirt

The Cardiff Giant is a 10-foot-tall ‘petrified man’ that was uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workmen digging a well on a farm in Cardiff, New York. Word of the ‘find’ quickly spread and thousands of people travelled from far and wide to pay 50 cents to see it. Although experts quickly denounced the giant as a fake, Christian fundamentalists proclaimed its authenticity and visitors kept coming. The showman P T Barnum proposed to buy the giant, but when his offer was rejected he put a plaster copy on show in New York and claimed that his was the original while the original was, in fact, a fake.

The owners of the Cardiff Giant took legal action but the judge ruled that Barnum could not be sued for calling a fake giant a fake. Upon learning that people were paying to see Barham’s fake fake giant, one of the owners of the original famously remarked, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Ironically, this saying is now wrongly attributed to Barham.

A New York tobacconist called George Hull created the hoax and eventually admitted as much in court.

Printed black, white and red on 175-gram charcoal melange 60% combed cotton, 40% polyester jersey.

Price: £22.00 (£25.30 inc. VAT)

CYMRAEG – ENGLISH