Booklet: "History of Animals and Leading Curiosities . . ."

• Main Author: New York Popular Publishing Co. (Creator)
• Format: Book
• Language: unknown
• Published: Ownership Statement: The Barnum Museum 1882
• Subjects: Circus animals; Circus > United States > History; African elephant; Books; P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth; & the Great London Circus combined with Sanger's Royal British Menagerie; Jumbo (Elephant); Nubian; polar bear
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/60002:1242

Booklet entitled "History of Animals," featuring a color illustration of Jumbo the Elephant on the front cover. Jumbo's trainer, Matthew Scott, is shown standing next to the elephant's hind leg, barely visible due to the elephant's exaggerated size. The booklet's full title is “History of Animals and Leading Curiosities within the P. T. Barnum and London Shows Combined." It was published at the time of Barnum's partnership with James A. Bailey, and J. L. Hutchinson. The celebrity pachyderm Jumbo was part of Barnum’s shows between 1882 and 1885, where this souvenir booklet would have been sold to circus-goers. The 32-page booklet contains detailed text as well as color Illustrations including: a giraffe, tigers, a rhino, a camel, a zebra, a polar bear, nubian buffalo, bears, antelope, an elephant, lions, a leopard, an alligator, and "The Happy Family" display of predators and prey. (The predators were well fed so as not to attack the prey animals.) Today we take for color printing for granted, but at the time this was produced, colored illustrations were less common, so this little booklet would have been especially appealing to purchase. The graphic design of the cover, with Jumbo consuming most of the space, is also visually exciting and adds to the appeal. The main title is composed of an elaborate font with graduated letters, large at the sides and small in the center, and shaded from red to grey-green. Subtitles fill the side spaces around the dark grey elephant. At the bottom in bold black lettering are the words "Ninth Monster Show." Pale red and light green coloring enlivens the background. P. T. Barnum is best known today for the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth, but his circus ventures did not come about until he was in his early 60s. His first circus, in the early 1870s, was called P. T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus. Barnum subsequently opened the New York Hippodrome with similar acts. In the 1880s, competition from other circuses increased. A merger between ...