Discussion Post: The Veiled Lodger
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sherlock60This week, the canon story we’re looking at is The Veiled Lodger and the chosen topic is Circuses.
A few facts:
🎪 Philip Astley (1742-1814), the founder of modern circus, staged a show in London in 1768 featuring trick horseback riding and live music. It was presented in a circular structure, and named Astley's Amphitheatre. He later added other acts, such as acrobats, a clown and a band to his performances. However, the term 'circus' to describe this type of exhibition was coined by Astley's contemporary and rival Charles Dibdin, who opened The Royal Circus in London in 1772.
Dibdin's term was used internationally to describe the mixture of horsemanship, comic turns and animal acts programmed as a theatrical spectacle. In 1793, John Bill Ricketts opened the first Astley-type circus in the US in Philadelphia. Ricketts' circus featured a rope-walker, a clown, and riding acts. By the start of the nineteenth century the majority of early circuses in America and Europe based their acts on ideas laid down by Philip Astley.
By the middle of the Victorian era travelling circuses had become large commercial concerns ranging from small tenting affairs to gigantic enterprises housed in permanent buildings or amphitheatres. For the first half of the nineteenth century, circus was largely performed in wooden buildings rather than in tents and proprietors such as Frederick "Charles" Hengler constructed purpose-built buildings known as hippodromes, circuses and amphitheatres in cities throughout the United Kingdom...
As the circus evolved so too did the programme. Acts found in the Victorian circus included aerial performances such as the tight-rope and the trapeze, equestrian riding, ground acts such as acrobats incorporating such novelties as the perch act and breakaway ladder, juggling and of course the staple of circus performance the clown. The combination of showing wild animals in the menagerie tradition with tricks and routines led to the rise of the animal circus incorporating lion-taming, elephant acts alongside feats of horsemanship. Circus performers became household names. [National Fairground and Circus Archive]
🎪 The Victorian period saw circus hit a boom period and a huge variety of acts were introduced to the genre, giving it many of the aspects with which audiences are familiar today. In fact, says Toulmin, some 15,000 people were performing in circuses across Britain during the 19th century. [Vanessa Toulmin, being interviewed by Charlotte Hodgman]
🎪 In the mid 19th century there were hundreds of circuses operating in Britain. Trick riding continued to be the main attraction, but a variety of other acts developed. There was even an aquatic circus where the circus ring was flooded with water...
One of the factors that made circus so popular was that fairground entertainers travelled to their audiences. From the late 18th century circuses toured to even the smallest towns and in the 19th century the development of the railways enabled circuses to travel further. By the 1870s huge circuses were touring across Europe and America with two or three trainloads of equipment…
The earliest circuses in the UK to use some type of canvas construction for their performances were probably the small troupes who appeared at fairs. These comprised an equestrian clown, a tightrope walker, and two or three horses, which pulled the wagons when the circus was on the move. Some would have small tents whilst other circuses performed in the open air with no more than a ring of rope and staves. The audience stood and watched from behind a wooden barrier onto which candles were tacked. Performances were repeated throughout the day whenever there was an audience to watch...
The type of tent that we associate with the circus today was first used by American circuses in the 1820s. It was introduced to England by Richard Sands’ American Circus which landed in Liverpool in 1842. This was advertised as having a ‘splendid and novel Pavilion, made after an entirely new style’. Sands’ Circus toured England for three or four years, and his tent was enthusiastically imitated...
The larger circuses would announce their arrival in town with a circus parade. The parade was a natural advertisement for the circus and would attract huge crowds...
‘Lord’ George Sanger was the most successful circus entrepreneur of the 19th century. An eccentric millionaire notorious for being a smart dresser, Sanger was instantly recognisable by his shiny top hat and diamond tie pin… In 1853 with his brother he opened a circus which toured the country. By its 1855 tour to Liverpool, Sanger’s Circus was playing before large audiences. Soon after this Sanger introduced lions and other wild animals into the touring circus and this boosted its popularity further. Sanger’s wife Mlle Pauline de Vere had performed at Wombwell’s Menagerie as the Lion Queen before joining his circus. At Sanger’s she performed serpent dances in the lions’ cage...
Sanger was responsible for introducing the 3-ring circus enabling audiences to watch more than one act at a time. This was taken up by the great American circuses, Barnum & Bailey and the Ringling Brothers.
'Lord' was a nickname rather than an official title, but he certainly looked the part... [Victoria and Albert Museum]
🎪 Pablo Fanque (born William Darby 30 March 1810 in Norwich, England; died 4 May 1871 in Stockport, England) was an English equestrian performer and circus proprietor, the first non-white British circus owner in Britain. His circus was the most popular in Victorian Britain for 30 years, a period that is regarded as the golden age of the circus. [Wikipedia]
🎪 ...Pablo Fanque… was more than simply an exceptional showman and perhaps the finest horsemen of his day. He was also a black man making his way in an almost uniformly white society, and doing it so successfully that he played to mostly capacity houses for the best part of 30 years...
Parish records show that Fanque was born William Darby in 1796, and grew up in the English east coast port of Norwich, the son of a black father and a white mother...
...Fanque proved to be a prodigy. He picked up numerous acrobatic skills (he was billed at various stages of his career as an acrobat and tightrope walker) and became renowned as the best horse trainer of his day…
John Turner, who has researched Fanque’s life more thoroughly than any other writer, says that he found little or no evidence that Fanque suffered racial discrimination during his long career. Contemporary newspapers mention his color infrequently, and incidentally, and many paid warm tribute to his charity work… Yet while all this may be true—there’s plenty of evidence, in late Victorian show-business memoirs, that Fanque was a well-respected member of an often disrespected profession—racism was pervasive in the nineteenth century. William Wallett, one of the great clowns of the mid-Victorian age, a friend of Fanque’s who worked with him on several occasions, recalls in his memoirs that on one visit to Oxford, “Pablo, a very expert angler, would usually catch as many fish as five or six of us within sight of him put together”—and this, Wallett adds, “suggested a curious device” to one irked Oxford student:
One of the Oxonians, with more love for angling than skill, thought there must be something captivating in the complexion of Pablo. He resolved to try. One morning, going down to the river an hour or two earlier than usual, we were astonished to find the experimental philosophical angler with his face blacked after the most approved style of the Christy Minstrels.
Although Wallett does not say so, the gesture was a calculated insult, and it may also be significant that it took Fanque years to gather up the wherewithal to go into business for himself. He did not own his circus until 1841, three decades into his career...
Still, Fanque’s showmanship, and a reputation for treating his acts well, helped him to expand his troupe… By the middle of the century, historian Brian Lewis notes, Fanque’s circus had become a fixture in the north of England… The troupe grew to include a stable of 30 horses; clowns; a ring master, Mr. Hulse; a band, and even its own “architect”–a Mr. Arnold, who was charged with erecting the wooden “amphitheatres” in which they generally performed… [Mike Dash]
🎪 The employment of black performers, sometimes sailors recruited at ports such as Liverpool, for roles in menageries and circuses was not unusual in the Victorian era… The world of circus was always exotic, with wild animals appearing in the circus arena and on the stage, from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Events in distant reaches of the empire were commonly portrayed in hippodromatic form, and although costume and makeup were used, authenticity were preferred. Being black seems to have been a positive asset not only to lion-tamers and equestrian actors in the ring but also to more conventional artistes. [John M. Turner]
🎪 Frederick Charles Hengler (1820-1887) was a horseman and circus owner.
Hengler was the son of Henry, a famous circus performer. After following his father as a rope-dancer he became a horseman with a variety of circus troupes before starting his own circus, Hengler's Cirque, in 1848. Hengler soon abandoned traditional tents and "Big Tops" and instead acquired spacious premises in large cities. In 1863 Hengler's acquired the old Prince's Theatre in West Nile Street, and by 1875 Hengler's Circuses were established in Glasgow, Liverpool, Edinburgh and London… [Mitchell Library, The Bailie]
🎪 John Ginnett was born in 1826 in Lea, Essex, son of a Frenchman, Jean Pierre Ginnett, founder of the circus [that is, the circus named after him]. John made his circus debut in 1832, billed as the ‘Infant Ginnett’, and rode a ‘speeding horse’ in front of King William IV and Queen Charlotte during a performance at Brighton. According to the Brighton Herald, he was considered to be the ‘finest tight-rope dancer, ceiling walker and rider of his day’.
Ginnett arrived in Brighton in about 1876 with his wife Annie and four sons, one of whom, Louis J Ginnett, became a renowned artist and designer. John built his first permanent circus or hippodrome at Park Crescent Place. It became the Gaiety Theatre in 1890 and was eventually replaced by a block of flats in the 1930s.
His most impressive development was the building of the Hippodrome (later the Grand Theatre) at the top of North Road, near the corner of Queen’s Road. The building opened on 19 October 1891, and was built to commemorate the jubilee of the founding of Ginnett’s Circus in Nottingham in 1841. [Brighton Museums]
🎪 Isaac A. Van Amburgh (1811–1865) was an American animal trainer who developed the first trained wild animal act in modern times. By introducing jungle acts into the circus, Van Amburgh paved the way for combining menageries with circuses. After that, menageries began using equestrian and clown performances in circus rings. Gradually the distinction between circus and menagerie faded.
...Van Amburgh quickly gained notoriety for his acts of daring, for example placing his bare arm and even head inside the jaws of a wild cat. Also known for his domineering attitude toward his animals, he earned the title “The Lion King.”
Despite the disapproval of some for his brutal treatment of animals, Van Amburgh remained very popular and successful, beginning his own menagerie which he took to Europe. He died a wealthy man, and his name continued to be used in the circus world for more than a century after. [Wikipedia]
🎪 Of those who could claim to have rested their head on a lion’s lower jaw Isaac van Amburgh was the first. An intrepid animal trainer, he accomplished feats of derring-do that went unmatched in his time. He and his pride of tamed felines became something of an international sensation, commanding the attention of no less estimable a personage than Queen Victoria, who commissioned a portrait of him, so deeply had his talents impressed her… [Christine Baumgarthuber]
🎪 The marquee attractions of Victorian circuses, the big cats commanded the lion’s share of top-quality food. The menu du jour of Alexander Fairgrieve’s famous traveling menagerie offers some sense of the pecking order among the animals. Elephants had to content themselves with “hay, cabbages, bread and boiled rice, sweetened with sugar” while the felines feasted on “shins, hearts, and heads of bullocks.” So much meat did the lions and tigers of the great circuses consume, in fact, that their fellow carnivores the bears had to await the onset of “very cold weather” before they could enjoy similar provisions. Until such time, they subsisted on bread, sopped biscuits and boiled rice. A hard life indeed the dancing bear lived, and his humiliations garnered little reward. [Christine Baumgarthuber]
🎪 Ellen Bright ([born] Blight) was 17 years old when she stepped into a lion and tiger cage at Chatham to entertain the crowds. As the niece of Mr George Wombwell, a ‘wild beast proprietor’ who owned ‘Wombwell’s Travelling Menagerie’, Ellen had spent her whole life surrounded by the excitement and danger of the show and was eager to make her own name...
Ellen wasn’t the first lady to take on [the] title [of ‘Lion Queen’] during the eighteenth century but she was one of the last, for her display at Chatham on 11 January 1850 proved fatal. Taking over the role from ‘Madame Pauline de Vere’ (Ellen Chapman) a lady renowned for her ‘prowess with beasts’, Ellen Bright was no doubt eager to prove that she was just as capable as her predecessor. Travelling shows frequently published ‘reports’ of their Lion Queens being bitten and mauled to heighten anticipation but Ellen’s first year seems to have gone without incident. On this occasion, however, the tiger she was working with took exception to her striking him with her whip to move him out of the way and growled angrily before launching himself at her.
An inquest held at the aptly named Golden Lion Inn in Chatham heard how the tiger seized ‘her furiously by the neck, inserting the teeth of the upper jaw in her chin and closing his mouth, inflicting frightful injury in the throat by his fangs.’ Sadly, although a keeper managed to beat back the tiger and a local surgeon immediately treated Ellen, her injuries were too severe for her life to be saved...
Placing a woman in this previously male dominated role challenged the Victorian ideal of what every woman should be – gentle, feminine and firmly placed at the heart of the home… As you can imagine, not everyone approved of their antics and in 1847 Queen Victoria is reported to have ‘expressly forbade’ the performance of the ‘Lion Queen’ when Mr Wombwell exhibited his menagerie in front of the royal family at Windsor.
Despite this royal disapproval, or perhaps because of it, Lion Queens reached the height of their fame during the 1840’s. Madame Pauline continued to perform until the 1890’s but from the time of Ellen Bright’s death the popularity of the ‘Lion Queen’ started to fade. [Rachael Hale]
🎪 Samuel Lockhart (1851–1933) was a famous Victorian elephant trainer and the second child of the famous Lockhart circus family. His work with elephants took him all over the UK, including Royal command performances in front of Queen Victoria, Europe (where he ran his own circus France) and in the USA, where he worked for the famous Ringling Brothers Circus from 1896 to 1901… [Wikipedia]
🎪 Many strongmen relied on unique acts that would set them apart from other strongmen and usually claimed they were the only one in the world to perform such a feat…
Pierre Gasnier – French Hercules b.1862 d.1923
Pierre Gasnier was born in France and was one of the first most influential of the old time circus strongmen and performed for Barnum and Bailey Circus. Gasnier could rip a deck of cards in half but his most famous feat was breaking a chain over his chest while expanding his ribcage. Interesting Fact: Gasnier stood only 5’ 3 tall and weighed just 143.5lbs and was able to lift a dumbbell weighing 260 lbs over has head...
Arthur Saxon – The Iron-Master b. 1878 – d. 1921
Arthur Saxon was a strongman and circus performer from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. Saxon made his name famous by a lift called the “bent press”. This is a type of weight training exercise where a weight is brought from shoulder-level to overhead one-handed using the muscles of the back, legs, and arm with which he set a world record of 370 lbs...
Angus MacAskill – Giant MacAskill b. 1825 – d.1863
MacAskill was born on the Isle of Berneray in the Sound of Harris, Scotland and emigrated to Nova Scotia . MacAskill was known as the world’s largest “true” giant, (no growth abnormalities). By the time he was 20 he was 7 ft 4 in (223 cm), eventually reaching 7 ft 10 in (236 cm) and weighed 580 pounds. In 1849 he entered show business and went to work for P.T. Barnum’s circus appearing next to General Tom Thumb… Interesting Fact: Queen Victoria heard stories about MacAskill’s great strength and invited him to appear before her to give a demonstration at Windsor Castle. She proclaimed him to be “the tallest, stoutest and strongest man to ever enter the palace”.
Eugen Sandow b. 1867 d. 1925
Eugen Sandow is often referred to as the “Father of Modern Bodybuilding”. Sandow was born in Prussia (now part of Germany) and began his career as a sideshow strongman... [Blogball]
🎪 KATIE SANDWINA, WOMAN OF STEEL: Born into a family of Austrian circus performers, Katharina Brumbach performed feat-of-strength acts throughout her childhood. At over six feet tall and weighing 187 pounds by the time she was a teen, Katie was soon wrestling men who'd risk the ring with her for the possibility of a 100-marks prize. She not only won every bout, but also her husband, Max Heymann. He happily joined her family's business, helping in promotions and sometimes allowing himself and their infant son to be hoisted up by Katie's mighty arm.
Katie's greatest challenge came at the hands of strongman Eugene Sandow. In New York City, her promotional stunt pitched that no man could lift more weight than this strongwoman. Sandow took that bet and lost when Katie pushed 300 pounds over her head with one hand. (Sandow only managed to get it to his chest.) From there, Katie changed her stage name to a feminine version of Sandow, so that no one would soon forget her Herculean strength.
ZAZEL, THE FIRST HUMAN CANNONBALL: Petite and pretty acrobat and tightrope walker Rosa Richter (billed as Zazel) was just 16 years old when she made history at the Royal Aquarium. There, she slid into a massive cannon mouth and allowed herself to be blasted 70 feet into the air, high above the dazzled spectators. This stunt was a collaboration with her mentor, celebrated tightrope walker William Leonard Hunt. He had concocted a device that would give the illusion of a cannon shot, while keeping Zazel from being blown to bits.
Fireworks were set off to give the impression of a cannon's explosion; Zazel's flight depended on springs and tension hidden within the metal barrel. As this trick caught on, Hunt's device was abandoned in favor of compressed air, which lessened the risks considerably. But this came too late for Zazel; after a long string of successful stunts, she flew past the safety net and broke her back, which forced her into retirement and, ultimately, obscurity. [Kristy Puchko]
🎪 One of the best known [tattooed ladies] is Nora Hildebrandt, America’s first professional tattooed lady, who toured with Barnum and Bailey’s circus throughout the 1890’s… Nora is commonly said to have been the daughter, or wife, of Martin Hildebrandt, an artist who opened the first tattoo parlour in New York City (possibly as early as the 1850s) and was heavily in demand among American Civil War soldiers. But this… is doubtful. Nora was actually born in England and there’s no proof she was either married to or related to Martin. (He’s recorded as married to a woman called Mary, with one son – Frank). Perhaps she took his name in acknowledgement of the art with which he covered her body...
Nora’s debut was quickly followed by that of Irene Woodward – or La Belle Irene – who billed herself at ‘The Original Tattooed Lady’... These women were mostly viewed as risqué circus attractions, little better than those working in peepshows or burlesque follies. Margot Mifflin, author of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo says:
“The women afforded a peepshow, along with a freak show, because at that time women just didn’t show that much skin publicly, The tattoos gave them a reason to strip down and show their bodies. Certainly a number of people who came to see them were interested in the flesh as much as the art.” [Katherine Clements]
🎪 The Victorians did love a freak show, and although today we view such things as sordid and exploitative, some performers were more than happy to be involved in the industry. The protection of the ‘stage’ enabled them to live in peace, when the outside world could often be a far more hostile environment.
Acts could make good money too. In the late 1890’s some of the most successful could earn £20 a week – the equivalent of over £1000 today.
Any production would depend on the skill of the showman whose job it was to pull in the crowds to see the show, who would probably have the gift of the gab, thus raising expectations with titillating introductions…
But there were some acts so famous they needed little promotion. Chang and Eng were the Siamese twins linked at the chest by a thick band of skin...
Midgets were always a draw, sometimes appearing in groups or ‘troops’, when they would dance and sing, or perhaps perform as acrobats. One of the most famed of the little men was the American General Tom Thumb who travelled with P T Barnum’s show and was so very popular that he was even invited to meet with Queen Victoria...
Miss Rosina was a great favourite too, appearing all over Europe and also often welcomed into aristocratic and royal homes. Despite having no hands or fingers, she managed to crotchet by using her feet and produced some very fine paintings indeed by holding a brush between her lips. [Essie Fox]
🎪 It was in the Victorian period that circuses rose to the commercial popularity we associate them with now… At first, the young Queen Victoria’s open love of the circus calmed people’s reservations in regards to how attendance would reflect on them individually and for a long while the circus existed seemingly loved and revered by all. They would gather with ready eyes and ready pockets to appreciate the likes of trick riders, animal tamers, acrobats, jugglers, sword eaters and of course clowns…
However, it was in the second half of Queen Victoria’s reign that certain incidents occurred, prompting people to question the respectability of such an event… Issues were beginning to be raised in the Victorian society concerning both the danger and modesty of the circus acts, with a specific focus on the female acrobats.
In July 1863, thousands gathered in Aston Park in Birmingham only to be horrified to watch a female trapeze artist, named Selina Powell who was eight months pregnant at the time, fall to her death… In the increasingly commercialised and competitive business of circus, Powell’s condition and safety was overlooked, due to her remarkable talent and rising fame. As a result of Powell’s death, the Queen wrote an open letter to the mayor of Birmingham explaining her horror “that one of her subjects, a female, should have been sacrificed to the gratification of the demoralising taste unfortunately prevalent for exhibitions attended with the greatest danger to the performers.” This letter lead to performance safety becoming the subject of parliamentary debate for the next three decades and eventually resulting in the creation of two laws, one in 1879 and one in 1897, prohibiting young children from take part in the more daring stunts...
People began to speak out about the costumes of the female acrobats, labeling them vulgar and promiscuous. These women, with their athletic, muscular bodies draped in spangles and sparkles, often appearing to be wearing nothing more than leotards, were the living embodiment of individualism. Some embraced the idea behind the image, that the women, and all performers for that matter, when performing, were to be treated as spectacles. They were to be gazed on and appreciated as a talent, separated from the crowd and in that moment, from societal conventions… However, many disagreed and the women’s scantily clad uniforms moved the Lord Chamberlain to release a warning to all places of public amusement stating “there is much reason to complain of the impropriety of costume of the ladies… now… that the question has been taken up by the press and public opinion… (I feel) compelled to call it to the serious attention of the managers.”
The issue of female performers being made to look indecent, came to a head when posters of the famous female acrobat Zaeo were released prior to her performance with the Barnum and Bailey circus at The Royal Aquarium… The poster was seen by some as improper due to the amount of Zaeo’s skin visible in the image… However, another argument that surfaced was that the images of this proud, and visibly strong woman, acted as a symbol of female vigour. It introduced the idea of women as not needing to be delicate and girlish, instead muscular and athletic. One journalist, after seeing Zaeo’s performance in 1898 labeled her the “new woman...” Zaeo herself defended her profession in an interview claiming that being an athletic woman “is the very best thing in the world.” [sian wild]
Some useful resources:
Victorian Circus On Victoria and Albert Museum website.
Lord George Sanger On Wikipedia.
"Lord" George Sanger: Fit for a Queen Part of National Fairground and Circus Archive, on the University of Sheffield website.
‘Lord’ George Sanger On Lord Sanger’s Circus Heritage Trail.
Pablo Fanque’s Fair By Mike Dash, on The Smithsonian.
Pablo Fanque On Wikipedia.
Pablo Fanque: Circus Hero By Adam Flint, on Museum of Science and Industry.
Charles Hengler On TheGlasgowStory.
John Frederick Ginnett (1826 – 1892) On Brighton Museums.
P.T. Barnum: Showman Supreme Part of National Fairground and Circus Archive, on the University of Sheffield website.
Tamer Instincts By Christine Baumgarthuber, on The New Inquiry.
The ‘Lion Queen’s’ Deadly Performance By Rachael Hale, on Wabdering Words.
The British Lion Queens: A History By Shaun Everett. An academic article in pdf form.
Isaac A. Van Amburgh On Wikipedia.
10 Lion Tamers From History Who Flirted With Death By Elizabeth S. Anderson, on ListVerse.
Back to the Circus with the Fearless Lion Tamers On the Bizarrium.
Samuel Lockhart On Wikipedia.
George Wombwell On Wikipedia.
Katie Sandwina On Wikipedia.
KATIE SANDWINA (1884 – 1952) Circus Strongwoman By Debbie Foulkes, on Forgotten Newsmakers.
10 Amazing Strongman Feats of the Past By Blogball, on ListVerse.
Strongmen of the 19th Century On PumpOne.
The Perfect Man: The Muscular Life and Times of Eugen Sandow, Victorian Strongman On Museum of London.
Eugen Sandow On Wikipedia.
Victorian Clowns and Clowning By Tine Hreno, on Writers in London in the 1890s.
A Trip To The Circus: Female Performers and their Impact on Society. By sain wild, on Reframing the Victorians.
Ladies of the Ring By Janet M. Davis, on Circus Now.
Stock Footage - CIRCUS. FAT VICTORIAN WOMEN ACROBATS. BALANCE ACT / ODD EARLY 1900s SILENT (I’ve quoted the title the poster has used but the acrobats aren’t fat and there’s nothing odd about the clip...) On YouTube: 9 seconds. Posted by MyFootage.com.
15 Phenomenal Female Circus Performers By Kristy Puchko, on Mental Floss.
8 Legendary Circus Performers By Evan Andrews, on History Lists.
Victorian Tattooed Ladies: Circus freaks or pioneering feminists? By Katherine Clements, on The History Girls.
The Victorians Did Love a Good Freak Show... By Essie Fox, on The Virtual Victorian.
Victorian freak shows On the British Library website.
Freak Lore On Freak Lore.
Where history happened: the circus in Britain Charlotte Hodgman speaks to Vanessa Toulmin, director of the National Fairground Archive in Sheffield, about eight places related to the development of the circus in Britain… On HistoryExtra.
Circus On Wikipedia.
Brief History of Circus Part of National Fairground and Circus Archive, on the University of Sheffield website.
Short History of the Circus By Dominique Jando, on Circopedia.
Circus On Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Circus Historical Society
The Circus in Victorian Times On The Bartlemas Anthology.
Victorian era circus performances facts: acts, costumes On Victorian Era.
Victorian Circus Animals This is a website that was created and designed as a final research project for the course at Huron University College called English 2326G: The Late Victorians and Other Beasties.
The Circus in Nineteenth Century Norwich By Nick Williams, on Norwich Heart.
Step Right Up! Bob Brooke presents the history of the circus in America. On History Magazine.
Going Further: Circus Family The British Circus is nearly 250 years old - but how can you track down ancestors who performed in it? Your Family History, 20 March 2017, on PressReader.
Black Victorians/Black Victoriana Book edited by Gretchen Gerzina. The link should hopefully take you to the chapter ‘Pablo Fanque, Black Circus Proprietor’, written by John M. Turner. But this is a preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
The Circus and Victorian Society By Brenda Assael A preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
Sawdust Sisterhood: How Circus Empowered Women By Steve Ward A preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
The Acrobat: Arthur Barnes and the Victorian Circus By John Stewart A preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
Olympians of the Sawdust Circle: A Biographical Dictionary of the 19th Century American Circus By William L. Slout A preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
A few facts:
🎪 Philip Astley (1742-1814), the founder of modern circus, staged a show in London in 1768 featuring trick horseback riding and live music. It was presented in a circular structure, and named Astley's Amphitheatre. He later added other acts, such as acrobats, a clown and a band to his performances. However, the term 'circus' to describe this type of exhibition was coined by Astley's contemporary and rival Charles Dibdin, who opened The Royal Circus in London in 1772.
Dibdin's term was used internationally to describe the mixture of horsemanship, comic turns and animal acts programmed as a theatrical spectacle. In 1793, John Bill Ricketts opened the first Astley-type circus in the US in Philadelphia. Ricketts' circus featured a rope-walker, a clown, and riding acts. By the start of the nineteenth century the majority of early circuses in America and Europe based their acts on ideas laid down by Philip Astley.
By the middle of the Victorian era travelling circuses had become large commercial concerns ranging from small tenting affairs to gigantic enterprises housed in permanent buildings or amphitheatres. For the first half of the nineteenth century, circus was largely performed in wooden buildings rather than in tents and proprietors such as Frederick "Charles" Hengler constructed purpose-built buildings known as hippodromes, circuses and amphitheatres in cities throughout the United Kingdom...
As the circus evolved so too did the programme. Acts found in the Victorian circus included aerial performances such as the tight-rope and the trapeze, equestrian riding, ground acts such as acrobats incorporating such novelties as the perch act and breakaway ladder, juggling and of course the staple of circus performance the clown. The combination of showing wild animals in the menagerie tradition with tricks and routines led to the rise of the animal circus incorporating lion-taming, elephant acts alongside feats of horsemanship. Circus performers became household names. [National Fairground and Circus Archive]
🎪 The Victorian period saw circus hit a boom period and a huge variety of acts were introduced to the genre, giving it many of the aspects with which audiences are familiar today. In fact, says Toulmin, some 15,000 people were performing in circuses across Britain during the 19th century. [Vanessa Toulmin, being interviewed by Charlotte Hodgman]
🎪 In the mid 19th century there were hundreds of circuses operating in Britain. Trick riding continued to be the main attraction, but a variety of other acts developed. There was even an aquatic circus where the circus ring was flooded with water...
One of the factors that made circus so popular was that fairground entertainers travelled to their audiences. From the late 18th century circuses toured to even the smallest towns and in the 19th century the development of the railways enabled circuses to travel further. By the 1870s huge circuses were touring across Europe and America with two or three trainloads of equipment…
The earliest circuses in the UK to use some type of canvas construction for their performances were probably the small troupes who appeared at fairs. These comprised an equestrian clown, a tightrope walker, and two or three horses, which pulled the wagons when the circus was on the move. Some would have small tents whilst other circuses performed in the open air with no more than a ring of rope and staves. The audience stood and watched from behind a wooden barrier onto which candles were tacked. Performances were repeated throughout the day whenever there was an audience to watch...
The type of tent that we associate with the circus today was first used by American circuses in the 1820s. It was introduced to England by Richard Sands’ American Circus which landed in Liverpool in 1842. This was advertised as having a ‘splendid and novel Pavilion, made after an entirely new style’. Sands’ Circus toured England for three or four years, and his tent was enthusiastically imitated...
The larger circuses would announce their arrival in town with a circus parade. The parade was a natural advertisement for the circus and would attract huge crowds...
‘Lord’ George Sanger was the most successful circus entrepreneur of the 19th century. An eccentric millionaire notorious for being a smart dresser, Sanger was instantly recognisable by his shiny top hat and diamond tie pin… In 1853 with his brother he opened a circus which toured the country. By its 1855 tour to Liverpool, Sanger’s Circus was playing before large audiences. Soon after this Sanger introduced lions and other wild animals into the touring circus and this boosted its popularity further. Sanger’s wife Mlle Pauline de Vere had performed at Wombwell’s Menagerie as the Lion Queen before joining his circus. At Sanger’s she performed serpent dances in the lions’ cage...
Sanger was responsible for introducing the 3-ring circus enabling audiences to watch more than one act at a time. This was taken up by the great American circuses, Barnum & Bailey and the Ringling Brothers.
'Lord' was a nickname rather than an official title, but he certainly looked the part... [Victoria and Albert Museum]
🎪 Pablo Fanque (born William Darby 30 March 1810 in Norwich, England; died 4 May 1871 in Stockport, England) was an English equestrian performer and circus proprietor, the first non-white British circus owner in Britain. His circus was the most popular in Victorian Britain for 30 years, a period that is regarded as the golden age of the circus. [Wikipedia]
🎪 ...Pablo Fanque… was more than simply an exceptional showman and perhaps the finest horsemen of his day. He was also a black man making his way in an almost uniformly white society, and doing it so successfully that he played to mostly capacity houses for the best part of 30 years...
Parish records show that Fanque was born William Darby in 1796, and grew up in the English east coast port of Norwich, the son of a black father and a white mother...
...Fanque proved to be a prodigy. He picked up numerous acrobatic skills (he was billed at various stages of his career as an acrobat and tightrope walker) and became renowned as the best horse trainer of his day…
John Turner, who has researched Fanque’s life more thoroughly than any other writer, says that he found little or no evidence that Fanque suffered racial discrimination during his long career. Contemporary newspapers mention his color infrequently, and incidentally, and many paid warm tribute to his charity work… Yet while all this may be true—there’s plenty of evidence, in late Victorian show-business memoirs, that Fanque was a well-respected member of an often disrespected profession—racism was pervasive in the nineteenth century. William Wallett, one of the great clowns of the mid-Victorian age, a friend of Fanque’s who worked with him on several occasions, recalls in his memoirs that on one visit to Oxford, “Pablo, a very expert angler, would usually catch as many fish as five or six of us within sight of him put together”—and this, Wallett adds, “suggested a curious device” to one irked Oxford student:
One of the Oxonians, with more love for angling than skill, thought there must be something captivating in the complexion of Pablo. He resolved to try. One morning, going down to the river an hour or two earlier than usual, we were astonished to find the experimental philosophical angler with his face blacked after the most approved style of the Christy Minstrels.
Although Wallett does not say so, the gesture was a calculated insult, and it may also be significant that it took Fanque years to gather up the wherewithal to go into business for himself. He did not own his circus until 1841, three decades into his career...
Still, Fanque’s showmanship, and a reputation for treating his acts well, helped him to expand his troupe… By the middle of the century, historian Brian Lewis notes, Fanque’s circus had become a fixture in the north of England… The troupe grew to include a stable of 30 horses; clowns; a ring master, Mr. Hulse; a band, and even its own “architect”–a Mr. Arnold, who was charged with erecting the wooden “amphitheatres” in which they generally performed… [Mike Dash]
🎪 The employment of black performers, sometimes sailors recruited at ports such as Liverpool, for roles in menageries and circuses was not unusual in the Victorian era… The world of circus was always exotic, with wild animals appearing in the circus arena and on the stage, from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Events in distant reaches of the empire were commonly portrayed in hippodromatic form, and although costume and makeup were used, authenticity were preferred. Being black seems to have been a positive asset not only to lion-tamers and equestrian actors in the ring but also to more conventional artistes. [John M. Turner]
🎪 Frederick Charles Hengler (1820-1887) was a horseman and circus owner.
Hengler was the son of Henry, a famous circus performer. After following his father as a rope-dancer he became a horseman with a variety of circus troupes before starting his own circus, Hengler's Cirque, in 1848. Hengler soon abandoned traditional tents and "Big Tops" and instead acquired spacious premises in large cities. In 1863 Hengler's acquired the old Prince's Theatre in West Nile Street, and by 1875 Hengler's Circuses were established in Glasgow, Liverpool, Edinburgh and London… [Mitchell Library, The Bailie]
🎪 John Ginnett was born in 1826 in Lea, Essex, son of a Frenchman, Jean Pierre Ginnett, founder of the circus [that is, the circus named after him]. John made his circus debut in 1832, billed as the ‘Infant Ginnett’, and rode a ‘speeding horse’ in front of King William IV and Queen Charlotte during a performance at Brighton. According to the Brighton Herald, he was considered to be the ‘finest tight-rope dancer, ceiling walker and rider of his day’.
Ginnett arrived in Brighton in about 1876 with his wife Annie and four sons, one of whom, Louis J Ginnett, became a renowned artist and designer. John built his first permanent circus or hippodrome at Park Crescent Place. It became the Gaiety Theatre in 1890 and was eventually replaced by a block of flats in the 1930s.
His most impressive development was the building of the Hippodrome (later the Grand Theatre) at the top of North Road, near the corner of Queen’s Road. The building opened on 19 October 1891, and was built to commemorate the jubilee of the founding of Ginnett’s Circus in Nottingham in 1841. [Brighton Museums]
🎪 Isaac A. Van Amburgh (1811–1865) was an American animal trainer who developed the first trained wild animal act in modern times. By introducing jungle acts into the circus, Van Amburgh paved the way for combining menageries with circuses. After that, menageries began using equestrian and clown performances in circus rings. Gradually the distinction between circus and menagerie faded.
...Van Amburgh quickly gained notoriety for his acts of daring, for example placing his bare arm and even head inside the jaws of a wild cat. Also known for his domineering attitude toward his animals, he earned the title “The Lion King.”
Despite the disapproval of some for his brutal treatment of animals, Van Amburgh remained very popular and successful, beginning his own menagerie which he took to Europe. He died a wealthy man, and his name continued to be used in the circus world for more than a century after. [Wikipedia]
🎪 Of those who could claim to have rested their head on a lion’s lower jaw Isaac van Amburgh was the first. An intrepid animal trainer, he accomplished feats of derring-do that went unmatched in his time. He and his pride of tamed felines became something of an international sensation, commanding the attention of no less estimable a personage than Queen Victoria, who commissioned a portrait of him, so deeply had his talents impressed her… [Christine Baumgarthuber]
🎪 The marquee attractions of Victorian circuses, the big cats commanded the lion’s share of top-quality food. The menu du jour of Alexander Fairgrieve’s famous traveling menagerie offers some sense of the pecking order among the animals. Elephants had to content themselves with “hay, cabbages, bread and boiled rice, sweetened with sugar” while the felines feasted on “shins, hearts, and heads of bullocks.” So much meat did the lions and tigers of the great circuses consume, in fact, that their fellow carnivores the bears had to await the onset of “very cold weather” before they could enjoy similar provisions. Until such time, they subsisted on bread, sopped biscuits and boiled rice. A hard life indeed the dancing bear lived, and his humiliations garnered little reward. [Christine Baumgarthuber]
🎪 Ellen Bright ([born] Blight) was 17 years old when she stepped into a lion and tiger cage at Chatham to entertain the crowds. As the niece of Mr George Wombwell, a ‘wild beast proprietor’ who owned ‘Wombwell’s Travelling Menagerie’, Ellen had spent her whole life surrounded by the excitement and danger of the show and was eager to make her own name...
Ellen wasn’t the first lady to take on [the] title [of ‘Lion Queen’] during the eighteenth century but she was one of the last, for her display at Chatham on 11 January 1850 proved fatal. Taking over the role from ‘Madame Pauline de Vere’ (Ellen Chapman) a lady renowned for her ‘prowess with beasts’, Ellen Bright was no doubt eager to prove that she was just as capable as her predecessor. Travelling shows frequently published ‘reports’ of their Lion Queens being bitten and mauled to heighten anticipation but Ellen’s first year seems to have gone without incident. On this occasion, however, the tiger she was working with took exception to her striking him with her whip to move him out of the way and growled angrily before launching himself at her.
An inquest held at the aptly named Golden Lion Inn in Chatham heard how the tiger seized ‘her furiously by the neck, inserting the teeth of the upper jaw in her chin and closing his mouth, inflicting frightful injury in the throat by his fangs.’ Sadly, although a keeper managed to beat back the tiger and a local surgeon immediately treated Ellen, her injuries were too severe for her life to be saved...
Placing a woman in this previously male dominated role challenged the Victorian ideal of what every woman should be – gentle, feminine and firmly placed at the heart of the home… As you can imagine, not everyone approved of their antics and in 1847 Queen Victoria is reported to have ‘expressly forbade’ the performance of the ‘Lion Queen’ when Mr Wombwell exhibited his menagerie in front of the royal family at Windsor.
Despite this royal disapproval, or perhaps because of it, Lion Queens reached the height of their fame during the 1840’s. Madame Pauline continued to perform until the 1890’s but from the time of Ellen Bright’s death the popularity of the ‘Lion Queen’ started to fade. [Rachael Hale]
🎪 Samuel Lockhart (1851–1933) was a famous Victorian elephant trainer and the second child of the famous Lockhart circus family. His work with elephants took him all over the UK, including Royal command performances in front of Queen Victoria, Europe (where he ran his own circus France) and in the USA, where he worked for the famous Ringling Brothers Circus from 1896 to 1901… [Wikipedia]
🎪 Many strongmen relied on unique acts that would set them apart from other strongmen and usually claimed they were the only one in the world to perform such a feat…
Pierre Gasnier – French Hercules b.1862 d.1923
Pierre Gasnier was born in France and was one of the first most influential of the old time circus strongmen and performed for Barnum and Bailey Circus. Gasnier could rip a deck of cards in half but his most famous feat was breaking a chain over his chest while expanding his ribcage. Interesting Fact: Gasnier stood only 5’ 3 tall and weighed just 143.5lbs and was able to lift a dumbbell weighing 260 lbs over has head...
Arthur Saxon – The Iron-Master b. 1878 – d. 1921
Arthur Saxon was a strongman and circus performer from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. Saxon made his name famous by a lift called the “bent press”. This is a type of weight training exercise where a weight is brought from shoulder-level to overhead one-handed using the muscles of the back, legs, and arm with which he set a world record of 370 lbs...
Angus MacAskill – Giant MacAskill b. 1825 – d.1863
MacAskill was born on the Isle of Berneray in the Sound of Harris, Scotland and emigrated to Nova Scotia . MacAskill was known as the world’s largest “true” giant, (no growth abnormalities). By the time he was 20 he was 7 ft 4 in (223 cm), eventually reaching 7 ft 10 in (236 cm) and weighed 580 pounds. In 1849 he entered show business and went to work for P.T. Barnum’s circus appearing next to General Tom Thumb… Interesting Fact: Queen Victoria heard stories about MacAskill’s great strength and invited him to appear before her to give a demonstration at Windsor Castle. She proclaimed him to be “the tallest, stoutest and strongest man to ever enter the palace”.
Eugen Sandow b. 1867 d. 1925
Eugen Sandow is often referred to as the “Father of Modern Bodybuilding”. Sandow was born in Prussia (now part of Germany) and began his career as a sideshow strongman... [Blogball]
🎪 KATIE SANDWINA, WOMAN OF STEEL: Born into a family of Austrian circus performers, Katharina Brumbach performed feat-of-strength acts throughout her childhood. At over six feet tall and weighing 187 pounds by the time she was a teen, Katie was soon wrestling men who'd risk the ring with her for the possibility of a 100-marks prize. She not only won every bout, but also her husband, Max Heymann. He happily joined her family's business, helping in promotions and sometimes allowing himself and their infant son to be hoisted up by Katie's mighty arm.
Katie's greatest challenge came at the hands of strongman Eugene Sandow. In New York City, her promotional stunt pitched that no man could lift more weight than this strongwoman. Sandow took that bet and lost when Katie pushed 300 pounds over her head with one hand. (Sandow only managed to get it to his chest.) From there, Katie changed her stage name to a feminine version of Sandow, so that no one would soon forget her Herculean strength.
ZAZEL, THE FIRST HUMAN CANNONBALL: Petite and pretty acrobat and tightrope walker Rosa Richter (billed as Zazel) was just 16 years old when she made history at the Royal Aquarium. There, she slid into a massive cannon mouth and allowed herself to be blasted 70 feet into the air, high above the dazzled spectators. This stunt was a collaboration with her mentor, celebrated tightrope walker William Leonard Hunt. He had concocted a device that would give the illusion of a cannon shot, while keeping Zazel from being blown to bits.
Fireworks were set off to give the impression of a cannon's explosion; Zazel's flight depended on springs and tension hidden within the metal barrel. As this trick caught on, Hunt's device was abandoned in favor of compressed air, which lessened the risks considerably. But this came too late for Zazel; after a long string of successful stunts, she flew past the safety net and broke her back, which forced her into retirement and, ultimately, obscurity. [Kristy Puchko]
🎪 One of the best known [tattooed ladies] is Nora Hildebrandt, America’s first professional tattooed lady, who toured with Barnum and Bailey’s circus throughout the 1890’s… Nora is commonly said to have been the daughter, or wife, of Martin Hildebrandt, an artist who opened the first tattoo parlour in New York City (possibly as early as the 1850s) and was heavily in demand among American Civil War soldiers. But this… is doubtful. Nora was actually born in England and there’s no proof she was either married to or related to Martin. (He’s recorded as married to a woman called Mary, with one son – Frank). Perhaps she took his name in acknowledgement of the art with which he covered her body...
Nora’s debut was quickly followed by that of Irene Woodward – or La Belle Irene – who billed herself at ‘The Original Tattooed Lady’... These women were mostly viewed as risqué circus attractions, little better than those working in peepshows or burlesque follies. Margot Mifflin, author of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo says:
“The women afforded a peepshow, along with a freak show, because at that time women just didn’t show that much skin publicly, The tattoos gave them a reason to strip down and show their bodies. Certainly a number of people who came to see them were interested in the flesh as much as the art.” [Katherine Clements]
🎪 The Victorians did love a freak show, and although today we view such things as sordid and exploitative, some performers were more than happy to be involved in the industry. The protection of the ‘stage’ enabled them to live in peace, when the outside world could often be a far more hostile environment.
Acts could make good money too. In the late 1890’s some of the most successful could earn £20 a week – the equivalent of over £1000 today.
Any production would depend on the skill of the showman whose job it was to pull in the crowds to see the show, who would probably have the gift of the gab, thus raising expectations with titillating introductions…
But there were some acts so famous they needed little promotion. Chang and Eng were the Siamese twins linked at the chest by a thick band of skin...
Midgets were always a draw, sometimes appearing in groups or ‘troops’, when they would dance and sing, or perhaps perform as acrobats. One of the most famed of the little men was the American General Tom Thumb who travelled with P T Barnum’s show and was so very popular that he was even invited to meet with Queen Victoria...
Miss Rosina was a great favourite too, appearing all over Europe and also often welcomed into aristocratic and royal homes. Despite having no hands or fingers, she managed to crotchet by using her feet and produced some very fine paintings indeed by holding a brush between her lips. [Essie Fox]
🎪 It was in the Victorian period that circuses rose to the commercial popularity we associate them with now… At first, the young Queen Victoria’s open love of the circus calmed people’s reservations in regards to how attendance would reflect on them individually and for a long while the circus existed seemingly loved and revered by all. They would gather with ready eyes and ready pockets to appreciate the likes of trick riders, animal tamers, acrobats, jugglers, sword eaters and of course clowns…
However, it was in the second half of Queen Victoria’s reign that certain incidents occurred, prompting people to question the respectability of such an event… Issues were beginning to be raised in the Victorian society concerning both the danger and modesty of the circus acts, with a specific focus on the female acrobats.
In July 1863, thousands gathered in Aston Park in Birmingham only to be horrified to watch a female trapeze artist, named Selina Powell who was eight months pregnant at the time, fall to her death… In the increasingly commercialised and competitive business of circus, Powell’s condition and safety was overlooked, due to her remarkable talent and rising fame. As a result of Powell’s death, the Queen wrote an open letter to the mayor of Birmingham explaining her horror “that one of her subjects, a female, should have been sacrificed to the gratification of the demoralising taste unfortunately prevalent for exhibitions attended with the greatest danger to the performers.” This letter lead to performance safety becoming the subject of parliamentary debate for the next three decades and eventually resulting in the creation of two laws, one in 1879 and one in 1897, prohibiting young children from take part in the more daring stunts...
People began to speak out about the costumes of the female acrobats, labeling them vulgar and promiscuous. These women, with their athletic, muscular bodies draped in spangles and sparkles, often appearing to be wearing nothing more than leotards, were the living embodiment of individualism. Some embraced the idea behind the image, that the women, and all performers for that matter, when performing, were to be treated as spectacles. They were to be gazed on and appreciated as a talent, separated from the crowd and in that moment, from societal conventions… However, many disagreed and the women’s scantily clad uniforms moved the Lord Chamberlain to release a warning to all places of public amusement stating “there is much reason to complain of the impropriety of costume of the ladies… now… that the question has been taken up by the press and public opinion… (I feel) compelled to call it to the serious attention of the managers.”
The issue of female performers being made to look indecent, came to a head when posters of the famous female acrobat Zaeo were released prior to her performance with the Barnum and Bailey circus at The Royal Aquarium… The poster was seen by some as improper due to the amount of Zaeo’s skin visible in the image… However, another argument that surfaced was that the images of this proud, and visibly strong woman, acted as a symbol of female vigour. It introduced the idea of women as not needing to be delicate and girlish, instead muscular and athletic. One journalist, after seeing Zaeo’s performance in 1898 labeled her the “new woman...” Zaeo herself defended her profession in an interview claiming that being an athletic woman “is the very best thing in the world.” [sian wild]
Some useful resources:
Victorian Circus On Victoria and Albert Museum website.
Lord George Sanger On Wikipedia.
"Lord" George Sanger: Fit for a Queen Part of National Fairground and Circus Archive, on the University of Sheffield website.
‘Lord’ George Sanger On Lord Sanger’s Circus Heritage Trail.
Pablo Fanque’s Fair By Mike Dash, on The Smithsonian.
Pablo Fanque On Wikipedia.
Pablo Fanque: Circus Hero By Adam Flint, on Museum of Science and Industry.
Charles Hengler On TheGlasgowStory.
John Frederick Ginnett (1826 – 1892) On Brighton Museums.
P.T. Barnum: Showman Supreme Part of National Fairground and Circus Archive, on the University of Sheffield website.
Tamer Instincts By Christine Baumgarthuber, on The New Inquiry.
The ‘Lion Queen’s’ Deadly Performance By Rachael Hale, on Wabdering Words.
The British Lion Queens: A History By Shaun Everett. An academic article in pdf form.
Isaac A. Van Amburgh On Wikipedia.
10 Lion Tamers From History Who Flirted With Death By Elizabeth S. Anderson, on ListVerse.
Back to the Circus with the Fearless Lion Tamers On the Bizarrium.
Samuel Lockhart On Wikipedia.
George Wombwell On Wikipedia.
Katie Sandwina On Wikipedia.
KATIE SANDWINA (1884 – 1952) Circus Strongwoman By Debbie Foulkes, on Forgotten Newsmakers.
10 Amazing Strongman Feats of the Past By Blogball, on ListVerse.
Strongmen of the 19th Century On PumpOne.
The Perfect Man: The Muscular Life and Times of Eugen Sandow, Victorian Strongman On Museum of London.
Eugen Sandow On Wikipedia.
Victorian Clowns and Clowning By Tine Hreno, on Writers in London in the 1890s.
A Trip To The Circus: Female Performers and their Impact on Society. By sain wild, on Reframing the Victorians.
Ladies of the Ring By Janet M. Davis, on Circus Now.
Stock Footage - CIRCUS. FAT VICTORIAN WOMEN ACROBATS. BALANCE ACT / ODD EARLY 1900s SILENT (I’ve quoted the title the poster has used but the acrobats aren’t fat and there’s nothing odd about the clip...) On YouTube: 9 seconds. Posted by MyFootage.com.
15 Phenomenal Female Circus Performers By Kristy Puchko, on Mental Floss.
8 Legendary Circus Performers By Evan Andrews, on History Lists.
Victorian Tattooed Ladies: Circus freaks or pioneering feminists? By Katherine Clements, on The History Girls.
The Victorians Did Love a Good Freak Show... By Essie Fox, on The Virtual Victorian.
Victorian freak shows On the British Library website.
Freak Lore On Freak Lore.
Where history happened: the circus in Britain Charlotte Hodgman speaks to Vanessa Toulmin, director of the National Fairground Archive in Sheffield, about eight places related to the development of the circus in Britain… On HistoryExtra.
Circus On Wikipedia.
Brief History of Circus Part of National Fairground and Circus Archive, on the University of Sheffield website.
Short History of the Circus By Dominique Jando, on Circopedia.
Circus On Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Circus Historical Society
The Circus in Victorian Times On The Bartlemas Anthology.
Victorian era circus performances facts: acts, costumes On Victorian Era.
Victorian Circus Animals This is a website that was created and designed as a final research project for the course at Huron University College called English 2326G: The Late Victorians and Other Beasties.
The Circus in Nineteenth Century Norwich By Nick Williams, on Norwich Heart.
Step Right Up! Bob Brooke presents the history of the circus in America. On History Magazine.
Going Further: Circus Family The British Circus is nearly 250 years old - but how can you track down ancestors who performed in it? Your Family History, 20 March 2017, on PressReader.
Black Victorians/Black Victoriana Book edited by Gretchen Gerzina. The link should hopefully take you to the chapter ‘Pablo Fanque, Black Circus Proprietor’, written by John M. Turner. But this is a preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
The Circus and Victorian Society By Brenda Assael A preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
Sawdust Sisterhood: How Circus Empowered Women By Steve Ward A preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
The Acrobat: Arthur Barnes and the Victorian Circus By John Stewart A preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
Olympians of the Sawdust Circle: A Biographical Dictionary of the 19th Century American Circus By William L. Slout A preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
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