The IDHH has continued to grow, with new collections added each quarterly harvest!
This month we’re featuring two new collections from Illinois State University (ISU), both of which explore circus history in Illinois: the P. T. Barnum Letters and Ephemera collection and the Ward Family Postcards collection. American showman Phineas Taylor “P. T.” Barnum (1810–1891) is probably best known for co-founding the three-ring Barnum & Bailey Circus in the late nineteenth century. The documents in this collection, which includes letters from Barnum himself, relate to Barnum’s circuses, business ventures, and Barnum’s purchase and disposition of Villa Park, approximately 760 acres of land in what is now metropolitan Denver, Colorado. The Ward Family Postcards collection features postcards sent by the Flying Wards, an aerial act that played in circuses and other venues in the early twentieth century, to their family back home as they toured through North America and Europe, offering insight into the developing trapeze act as well as historic postcards of different American cities.
Here are a few of our favorite items from these two new collections:
Want to see more?
Visit the IDHH to view more collections and items from Illinois State University, to view more items from the the P. T. Barnum Letters and Ephemera collection and the Ward Family Postcards collections, or to view more circus-related items and collections, include the rich circus collections from ISU.