P. T. BARNUM

1810–1891

American P. T. Barnum was a promoter, philanthropist, publisher, and popularizer of the three-ring circus, the human freak show, and the public museum. A showman, entrepreneur, and reputed hoaxer, Barnum is best remembered for his traveling spectacle “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which transformed popular entertainment.

Born in Bethel, Connecticut, in 1810, Phineas Taylor Barnum began his entrepreneurial career at age 12 by selling homemade cherry rum at town gatherings. By his 20s, Barnum had made enough money to found his own newspaper, the Herald of Freedom, but his talent for promotion soon drew him to showmanship. He began to bring human freak shows and related curiosities to a mass audience. This included “renting” an elderly black woman named Joyce Heth, whom Barnum presented as the “161-year-old nurse to George Washington.”

In 1841, Barnum bought New York’s American Museum, reopening it with theatrical acts, exotic animals, and unusual displays such as the “Feejee Mermaid” (purported to have a human head and a fish’s body) and “General Tom Thumb,” a 25-in (63-cm) boy. Eager to garner respectability as a promoter and quash rumors that his exhibits were hoaxes, Barnum risked his fortune to set up a US tour for Swedish soprano Jenny Lind. Although she was almost unknown in the US, Barnum’s marketing campaign ensured seats were filled for the nine months of her tour. In 1870, at age 60, Barnum agreed to collaborate on a new enterprise: “The Greatest Show on Earth.” A traveling circus, it successfully toured the US, with Barnum building the show a permanent home in New York—called the Hippodrome (later known as Madison Square Garden)—in 1874. Ever enterprising, Barnum amalgamated his circus with James A. Bailey’s renowned “Great London Show” in 1881; it continued to tour even after Barnum’s death in 1891.

Barnum’s circus venture included attractions such as Jumbo the Elephant, whose skeleton remained a popular attraction after his death in 1885.