More than 100,000 visitors passed through the galleries within the first three months, and "hours dwindled to minutes while they held communion with the relics and the memories of bygone bloodshed and heart-break." (CHICAGO JOURNAL September 21, 1889) Gunther traveled extensively in the early 1890s to add to his collection. When his plan to bring an Egyptian pyramid to Chicago proved impractical, he negotiated for the Missouri house in which Jesse James was shot and "Uncle Tom's cabin" in Louisiana. His attempt to move Philadelphia's Independence Hall to Chicago outraged an eastern journalist:

No considerations of sentiment have any weight with Chicago. With her it is only a question of money, and she misses no opportunity to let people know that she has plenty of that. (SILVESTRO 90; WASHINGTON EVENING NEWS January 7, 1893)

"Entrance to Escape Tunnel" display at the Libby Prison War Museum, c. 1893 (ICHi-30986).

Gunther collected the genuine, the plausible, and the preposterous.

Lincoln's deathbed from the Petersen House (CHS 1920.249), "Skin of the Serpent that Tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden," (1920.1714).

Gunther's museum was an unapologetically commercial venture.

The museum's catalogs promoted Gunther's candy, Libby Prison Cigars, and the Libby Prison Restaurant. Visitors were encouraged to stop at a sales case "presided over by the daughter of a veteran" to purchase Confederate money, sterling silver Libby Prison and Lincoln souvenir spoons, and buttons and gavels carved from the original Libby prison flooring. A reporter facetiously commented:

P.T. Barnum's immensely successful American Museum in New York City included animal skeletons, relics from Noah's ark, a "mermaid," and a living human "exhibit," the midget and star attraction Tom Thumb. Barnum played to his visitors' obvious enjoyment in puzzling over the authenticity of his displays. He advertised the most fraudulent curios with a disclaimer:

It is with great reluctance that he presented this unprecedented marvel to the world, as doubts had been expressed as to its genuineness -- doubts inspired by the actually incredible amount of attention in it. All that we ask of an enlightened and honest public is, that it will pass a fair verdict and decide whether it be a humbug or not. (HARRIS, Humbug 77-8)

P.T. Barnum's American Museum in New York City, The Life of P.T. Barnum Written by Himself, 1855. Courtesy of Northwestern University Library.
The four-story Libby Prison War Museum, crammed with Civil War memorabilia and eclectic curios, was an immediate success. Gunther became an international celebrity and attracted offers of Americana from across the country.

There can easily be a supply of such relics as long as there are old pineboards and sticks in Chicago. The war museum in the building is full of objects of interest, most of which are not being given away or sold, as the supply cannot be kept up... the value of most relics is in the label on them. If that is credited the sentiment comes along all right.

Souvenir buttons, Libby Prison War Museum (CHS 1935.164b).

The commercial spirit of Gunther's enterprise and the dubiousness of some of its contents were typical of ninteenth-century American museums, which were characterized by a mix of history and popular culture.
Authenticated treasures included manuscripts documenting the French and Indian War, the first U.S. patent signed by George Washington, and the suite of furniture from the Petersen house bedroom where Lincoln died. The "Skin of the Serpent that Tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden," an obvious forgery, featured runic inscriptions and wax sealed testimonials of authenticity.