Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Visual Materials
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Image of the two female and two male members of the Silbon aerialist troupe performing, with a central image of the members performing on trapezes in multiple routines simultaneously, while a male circus performer balances on a moving horse in a circus ring with a clown in the background, and an image, at left, of the Silbons standing one-on-top of the other while balancing on hanging rings outdoors.
priJLC_ENT_001315
Visual Materials
Image of the two female and four male members of the Konyot family of equestrians performing two simultaneous acts balancing on the back of a moving horse in a tented circus ring, with a top central vignette of a formal group portrait of the troupe.
priJLC_ENT_001316
Visual Materials
Image of three vignettes with head-and-shoulder portraits of circus owners Peter Sells, at left, Adam Forepaugh, at center, and Lewis Sells, at right.
priJLC_ENT_001331
Image not available
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.
Visual Materials
Image of a female equestrian standing on one leg on the back of a galloping horse as a whiteface clown looks on in amazement.
priJLC_ENT_000020
Visual Materials
Image of an aerial bicycle act from the Adam Forepaugh and Sells Brothers circus; six men ride or hang upside-down from three bicycles.
priJLC_ENT_004733
priJLC_ENT_004733