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Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows : Pallenberg's wonder bears



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  • Barnum & Bailey greatest show on Earth : Pallenberg's wonder bears the only bicycle-riding, roller-skating, acrobatic bears in the world

    Barnum & Bailey greatest show on Earth : Pallenberg's wonder bears the only bicycle-riding, roller-skating, acrobatic bears in the world

    Visual Materials

    Image of a male animal trainer and seven bears performing various acts under a circus tent including roller skating, bicycling, tightrope walking, and balancing on a ball.

    priJLC_ENT_001314

  • Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey : the greatest show on Earth

    Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey : the greatest show on Earth

    Visual Materials

    Image of numerous circus acts including acrobats, aerialists, tumblers, clowns, equestrians with horses, elephants, camels, and dogs performing in a large arena under a big tent in front of an audience; "The Greatest Show on Earth" globe logo at bottom right.

    priJLC_ENT_000026

  • Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey : The great Alzanas world renowned high wire daredevils

    Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey : The great Alzanas world renowned high wire daredevils

    Visual Materials

    Image of male high-wire walker Harold Alzana performing two acts on a high wire tightrope including one with two female aerialists suspended from a bicycle; "The Greatest Show on Earth" globe logo at lower left; one layer of a photomechanical print of a portion of a figure wearing a tuxedo and top hat started on verso.

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    Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey. (Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Combined 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_000061

  • Kay Bros. Circus and trained wild animals

    Kay Bros. Circus and trained wild animals

    Visual Materials

    Image of a collage of images of performing elephants balancing on balls, playing musical instruments, lying on top of an animal trainer, and other tricks.

    priJLC_ENT_000120

  • Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey

    Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey

    Visual Materials

    Image of three seals balancing balls and climbing a ladder with a male and a female trainer; "The Greatest Show on Earth" globe logo printed on one of the balls.

    priJLC_ENT_000062