On Oct. 16, 1869, workers digging on the farm of William “Stub” Newell in Cardiff, New York, uncovered what appeared to be a 10-foot tall giant. Thousands of people paid to get a glimpse of the giant. In time, people began to question the credibility of the giant: Some still believed it was a petrified giant, while others believed it was a stone statue.  

Soon, the hoax, organized by George Hull, was revealed. But by that point, the hoax had already made Hull and his co-conspirators thousands of dollars.  

Now, “PETRIFIED: The Cardiff Giant and Other Ostensible People from the Earth,” the exhibit based on the giant, opened last week and will be open until Dec. 13 at the Sue and Leon Genet Gallery at the Nancy Cantor Warehouse. 

The Cardiff Giant is the most well–known of the dozens of petrified giants, though there are hundreds of lesser–known ostensible people from the 19th century, Stephen Singer said.  

For the last 15 months, Singer, a second-year graduate student in the museum studies program at Syracuse University, curated an exhibit about the phenomena of these hoaxes. Months of research, planning and working with art handlers and fellow students went into putting together the exhibit.    

Singer’s interest in the strange and paranormal inspired him to do more research on the trend of petrified people surrounding the Cardiff Giant hoax, he said.  

“I was approached to possibly do an exhibit, and I kind of pitched the idea because I thought that was fun and quirky, and no one had done so much on the subject, and they went with it,” said Singer. 

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Past exhibitions related to the hoaxes have solely focused on the Cardiff Giant, as it is one of the most famous giants. During his research, Singer discovered nearly 40 giants that are part of the widespread phenomena, he said. Each of these giants are highlighted in the exhibit. 

Andrew Saluti, the program coordinator and assistant professor in the museum studies program, works with Singer on the exhibit. He said the exhibit is the first one to look at the phenomena as a whole.  

“Stephen’s exhibit actually looks at the entire wave of all of these hoaxes that were not just in the United States, but around the world, and he’s done a lot of research to show how widespread this hoax really was,” said Saluti. 

“PETRIFIED” features the Tydiff Giant, one of the lesser known giants, that Singer was able to secure. But getting the Tydiff Giant into the gallery was not an easy task, as the concrete figure stands at roughly 12 feet tall, said Rachel Geiogamah, the manager of the Genet Gallery.  

Geiogamah, who works closely with Singer to help bring his vision to life, said that although it was a challenge to get the giant into the gallery, it’s the part of the exhibit that she’s most excited about. 

One section of the exhibit is dedicated to commemorative giants, which are different from the other petrified giants. Singer said that unlike the petrified giants, these were created more for educational purposes and were often made for anniversaries, parades or other important events. The Tydiff Giant is one of those commemorative giants.  

Saluti hopes that members of the community will come out to see “PETRIFIED” since the giants have some proximity to the Syracuse area. He thinks that people who come out to the exhibit will learn something about the other petrified giants related to the Cardiff Giant hoax.  

“The people who live here really know about these stories, and I think what Stephen’s done is create something really unique that the community can learn from,” Saluti said.  

Published on November 19, 2019 at 9:54 pm

Contact Gavi: gavi@dailyorange.com | @gavi_azoff