The Barnum and Bailey program for the season of 1912, with a total of 16 fantastic acts, including: “The Spectacle of Cleopatra”; “Three Royal Riding Acts” (including “Dainty and dexterous displays of principal bareback equitation by the charming exemplar of grace and agility, Miss Victoria Davenport”); “A Complete Number of.....
This colorful broadside promotes a tight-rope act performed by an unnamed gentleman pictured in numerous illustrations here. He is shown in three different vignettes performing the “sensational drop high to low wire,” the “sensational drop with ladder,” and “nerve tantalizing tricks wire swinging.” Arrows in the illustrations indicate the motion.....
A spectacular Mardi Gras poster for the Krewe of Proteus floats for 1896, depicting a wide variety of animals—here dubbed “Dumb Society,”—in imaginative situations. Represented here are twenty floats with titles such as “Presidential Sport,” “At Home…Dancing,” “In the Surf,” and “A Royal Banquet.” One marvelous float entitled “Five.....
A captivating poster featuring the Krewe of Rex’s “Heavenly Bodies” floats for the 1896 Mardi Gras. One of the oldest participants in Mardi Gras and the source of many of its storied traditions, the Krewe of Rex was founded in 1872 on the occasion of the visit to New.....
An unrecorded broadside advertising a performance in Wells, New York given by a talented blind musician and singer who also found work tuning pianos. This broadside announces the performance of blind musician H. S. Spencer who gave a concert of vocal and instrumental music on the evening of 4.....
This attractive folding brochure features evocative illustrations of the Historic Deadwood Days of ‘76 festival, including “Sioux Indian Battles and War Dances Every Day,” a covered wagon train, Paris Williams,”the most ensational Woman Rodeo Performer in America.” One image shows President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge taken into the Sioux Tribe.....
A rare poster for Stone & Murray’s Circus, advertising acts by some of the leading equestrian performers of the day, as well as acrobats and clowns, this example used to announce a summertime appearance in Old Town, Maine. Illustrated with nineteen lively vignettes of equestrian acts, acrobats, jugglers, and clowns.....
A souvenir program for La Fiesta de Los Angeles, a celebration of the history of California, which took place between 10 April and 13 April 1894 in downtown Los Angeles. Includes an account of the grand carnival, with its origins and purpose, as well as an historical sketch of Southern.....
A scarce advertising broadside for one of the more notable theater companies producing Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the late-nineteenth century. Dramatizations of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s influential novel began in 1852, the year of publication, and from the beginning included elements of blackface minstrelsy—a well established form of stage entertainment.....
A delightful poster depicting the Krewe of Proteus floats for the 1898 Mardi Gras. The Krewe’s theme for the parade was “A Trip to Wonderland,” a broad subject that inspired a marvelous variety of twenty imaginative floats with titles such as “A New Heaven,” “An Arctic Symposium,” “Tiger-Lilies In.....
A broadside advertising an appearance of the original ‘Siamese Twins,’ Chang and Eng, featuring an evocative wood engraving of the brothers. A sensation across the U.S. and Europe during the 1830s, Chang and Eng were born co-joined at the sternum in Siam (present-day Thailand) in 1811. The twins were ‘discovered’.....
A rare, jam-packed minstrel show playbill with blackface performances by Buckleys Serenaders in their Boston theater, brimming with ‘comic’ descriptions of three acts plus general information. Part I of this program includes melodies such as Darky Felicity and Farm Yard; Part II features variety acts such as the song.....
A rare broadside for James Ferguson’s British collection of exotic “curiosities of nature” and wax exhibition. Proprietor Mr. James Ferguson here announces he has just engaged the following "celebrated curiosities of nature": Senor & Senora Santiago de Los Santos, the former from Philippina Island, near China; The Smallest Man in.....
This entertaining program promotes the sixteenth season of Hoyt’s “A Texas Steer or Money Makes the Mare Go”—a humorous “collection of saws and incidents” about Texas politics. Act I takes place at “Maverick Brander’s” cattle ranch, while Act II and III are set at the Arlington hotel in Washington county.....
A striking, dramatic program for a historic spectacle produced and directed by Imre Kiralfy for Barnum & Bailey in New York City. Credits for this show are given on page one: music composed by Sgr. Angelo Venanzi of Milan; costumes and accessories by Wilhelm of London; as well as.....
A handsome guide to the Eden Musée wax museum, concert hall, and amusement center in New York City. A vivid, theatrical illustration printed by lithographers Mayer, Merkel and Ottmann graces the front wrapper. It depicts a military figure drawing back a curtain to reveal the stately, Second Empire style museum.....
A broadside advertising Mack & Arnold’s minstrel show at the Windsor, Vermont town hall, with an original ticket to the show. The public is advised that “this Troupe is not composed of one or two legitimate performers and several amateurs but that each and every member is an Etheopian Artist.....
An unrecorded broadside for a popular man-monkey or “Jocko” play in Boston, performed by the prolific British artist Monsieur Gouffe. Jocko plays became popular in Britain and Europe in the early 19th century, such productions often touring America as well, as seen here. The modern man-monkey performance is generally.....
This production of Alice in Wonderland, which ran from 6–7 May was presented by the employees’ Association of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, for the Benefit of the Union Vacation House. Tickets—ranging from 25 cts. to $1.00—were sold at the Women’s Union on Boylston Street. The Program reads as.....