Barnum & Bailey Circus (1881 - 1919)
Dates
- Existence: 1881 - 1919
Biography
Barnum & Bailey Circus was born in 1881 out of the merge of P.T. Barnum and William Cameron Coup’s circus and ‘Cooper and Bailey Circus’, founded by James Anthony Bailey and James E. Cooper.
The spectacle they travelled was of such mammoth proportions that they started to use three rings they were also one of the first circuses to move by train and probably the first one to own his own train.
Barnum and Bailey split up in 1885, but they reunited in 1888 with the ‘Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth’ and later ‘Barnum & Bailey Circus’ which toured the world.
After Barnum’s death in 1891, Bailey bought his share in the business and continued operating the show until 1897, when he took the circus to Europe for a five year tour. Barnum & Bailey visited the United Kingdom in 1889 and 1897 and had an enormous influence on how British circuses have been run since.
When Barnum and Bailey returned to American in 1902 they found that their biggest rivals, The Ringling Brothers, had taken over their usual travelling grounds in the east coast and they had to resettle on the west. Bailey died on 11 April 1906 and his circus was bought by The Ringling brothers a year later. The circuses were operated as two separate entities until 1919, when they were merged into one gigantic spectacle, the worldwide famous ‘Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus operated as the most successful American circus until 2017.
Found in 22 Collections and/or Records:
Various Items, c1800 - 2019
A range of circus related items related to Hassan Ali, Adha Issacs Menken, Barnum and Bailey, funeral items, illustrations of circus parades, circus tickets, discount vouchers and booking forms, circus themed stickers, famous clown clay models, circus themed jigsaw puzzles, circus model figures, comics books and children's books, Circus Friends Association related material, Montecarlo Circus Festival related items, Jesse Fossett's throwing knives and other items.
Views and Order of the Procession, Barnum and Bailey Show Booklet, 1899
Hard cover fold out booklet with red fabric spine and title printed on yellow paper and glued to the front cover, containing eight monocrhome views in red showing animals and carts parading with titles and order of the procession in the centre in red type for the Barnum and Bailey Show.