Visual Materials
The Walter L. Main grandest and best shows consolidated
You might also be interested in
Image not available
Walter L. Main … Grandest and Best Railroad Shows
Visual Materials
This collection contains more than 650 printed items that relate to circuses in the United States from the 1850s to the 1990s. The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials, business records, and illustrations produced for or pertaining to circuses, their tours and shows, staff and performers, acts and exhibits, and animals. Materials are arranged in three series: small-size prints and ephemera (11 x 14 inches or less); large-size prints and ephemera (more than 11 x 14 inches); and broadsides and handbills. The collection has 206 large-size items comprised mainly of lithographic posters containing brightly colored images of featured circus acts, performers, and animals that were typically posted outdoors in advance of the circus coming to town. Small-size items in the collection number more than 320 and are comprised mainly of advertising and promotion ephemera and business documents such as trade cards, programs and souvenir books, route cards, envelopes, tickets, songsters, and printed billheads and letterheads. The 130 broadsides, handbills, and related advertisements consist primarily of long, narrow broadsides printed on newspaper paper in black ink using letterpress type that advertised upcoming circus shows and were intended to be distributed by hand, left in stacks in public places, or posted on walls, fences, or in windows in advance of the circus's arrival in a town. This collection provides a resource for studying the history of the American circus and its impact on popular entertainment and advertising in the 19th and 20th centuries. As graphic materials, the items offer evidence of the development of printmaking techniques and trends, and of the artists, engraves, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creation of these prints.
priJLC_ENT_Circus
The Barnum & Bailey greatest show on Earth : a complete horse show of the most beautiful, best trained and sagacious equines ever exhibited
Visual Materials
Image of horses crowded into a central ring performing before spectators in a tented circus arena, with a clown and a rodeo horse in a side ring; with an upper left vignette of performing horses and an upper right vignette of statutes of famous military equestrians captioned "Joan of Arc," Battle for the Square," and "Washington."
priJLC_ENT_000006
The Barnum & Bailey greatest show on earth : the world's grandest, largest, best, amusement institution
Visual Materials
Image of a parade of circus wagons, each containing zoo animals and an animal trainer, proceeding around a track in an indoor arena with spectators looking on; the first wagon is labeled "Royal Bengal Tigers"; portraits of P.T. Barnum and J. A. Bailey at left.
priJLC_ENT_000002
The original Adam Forepaugh shows. : Miss Aimee Parnella
Visual Materials
Image of female acrobat and juggler Aimee Parnella performing four different acts simultaneously in a circus ring with spectators in grandstands in the background; vignette of a head-and-shoulders portrait of circus founder Adam Forepaugh in upper left.
priJLC_ENT_001330
The Barnum & Bailey greatest show on Earth : représentation emouvante dans l'air introduisant la flêche humaine
Visual Materials
Image of male and female aerialists performing high above a circus ring on trapezes and rings.
priJLC_ENT_000966
Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows : presenting one hundred and fifty horses in “the fete of the garlands.”
Visual Materials
Image of male and female equestrians riding horses through garland arches held up by other riders in a tented circus ring.
priJLC_ENT_000045