Matthew Wittmann

Some links and notes regarding today’s webinar for the American Antiquarian Society, which can now be seen on YouTube:

The exhibition Circus and the City: 1793-2010 ran at the Bard Graduate Center from September 21, 2012 through February 2, 2013. Although the exhibition is long closed, you can still find the book out there.

The most comprehensive study of show culture in the eighteenth century is Peter Benes’ For a Short Time Only: Itinerants and the Resurgence of Popular Culture in Early America (2016).

The best single source on the early history of the American circus remains Stuart Thayer’s Annals of the American Circus, but see also my effort to place the origins and growth of the modern circus in a global context in The Cambridge Companion to the Circus.

A circus trunk interlude:

The Benjamin Brown collection at the William Clements Library offers a fascinating look at the career of a contemporary American showman.

I wrote an article about the formation of the Zoological Institute highlighting another example of their incredible promotional efforts via Jared Bell for Common-Place, which you can find here.

For more on printing and popular entertainment, consider joining and supporting the Ephemera Society of America and the Circus Historical Society!

The Cambridge Companion to the Circus has now been published! Edited by Gillian Arrighi and Jim Davis, the volume has sixteen essays tracing the evolution of the circus, including my opening salvo on “The Origins and Growth of the Modern Circus”:

The circus was an expansive cultural form that emerged in late eighteenth-century London by combining several existing lines of popular entertainment, most notably equestrian trick riding, into a multi-act performance that took place in a circular arena. Ongoing social and economic changes overtaking the British Isles created a new market for popular leisure activities that entrepreneurial equestrians such as Philip Astley and Charles Hughes were quick to capitalise upon. While many of the discrete acts that figured in the early circus have long and varied histories, the focus of this chapter will be on the more immediate origins of the circus at Astley’s Amphitheatre, which provided the essential model that was refined and expanded as the circus grew into a global form of entertainment. Limited only by the need for the performance to take place within a demarcated ring, the flexibility of the circus allowed it to incorporate both traditional and new acts in an innovative fashion that ensured its enduring appeal. The essence of its success was the efficiency with which the circus delivered enjoyable entertainment to a broad audience, but there were a variety of cultural and socio-economic dynamics that shaped its development. This chapter looks at the origins of the circus in Astley’s comparatively modest displays in the late 1760s and traces its growth into what by the 1850s was a global cultural phenomenon.

Feld Entertainment made a surprising, but not necessarily unexpected announcement that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (which presently tours as two separate shows) will hold its final performance(s) in May. The present show traces its roots to 1871, which was the first season that P. T. Barnum fielded a circus, so some combination of its present title has been touring for over 146 years!

There are, I suppose, two ways to react to the news. The first is to bemoan the passing of the great American railroad circus, even though many traditionalists will tell you that the era already ended in 1956 when RBB&B abandoned the “big top” for indoor arenas. The other is to recognize that the model of touring a large and costly circus around the country is simply not viable in this day and age, and that it’s impressive that this all lasted as long as it did.

I would also add that when one era ends, another begins. Perhaps the greatest asset of the American circus historically has been its capacity for reinvention. And while this announcement coupled with the closing of the Big Apple Circus last year is a tough blow for circus fans, it’s not as if the circus arts are going to disappear. As I have argued in Circus and the City and elsewhere, it only looks like the circus is in decline if you have a very narrow and traditional idea about what the circus is. Cirque du Soleil is a veritable global entertainment empire. Les 7 Doights and other innovative companies put together and tour incredible shows. Organizations like the American Youth Circus and, in my neighborhood, the Boston Circus Guild show that circus retains its vitality and appeal. At the core of the circus is the delight people take in seeing the spectacular feats by performers, and the fact that one of our biggest entertainment companies does not find it viable to tour a large arena show does not mean that the circus is going to go away. I am hopeful that a reinvented American circus will find the audience that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus no longer could.