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Princeton University Library Collection of Circus Miscellany
Notifications
Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Consists of subject files on all aspects of the circus: acts, organizations, and specific performers and circuses. Included are photographs, manuscripts, programs, broadsides, posters, scrapbooks, clippings, and other ephemera. There are files on acrobats, clowns, elephants, and miniature circus, as well as on the Circus Fans Association, the Circus Historical Society, Ringling Brothers, and Tom Thumb. Also includes various issues from circus related magazines including: Circus Ring Magazine, Circus Review, Tent Topics Newsletter, etc.
This collection was formed as a result of a Departmental practice of combining into one collection material of various accessions relating to a particular person, family, or subject. Materials have been acquired through multiple purchases and gifts.
Finding aid updated by Amy C. Vo in November 2021.
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Date
- 2002
- Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
-
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
Collection Inventory
Consists of information, papers, and photographs on acrobats, bands, circus acts, clowns, posters, and sideshows, as well as other subjects.
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Physical Description2 boxes
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Consists of the May 1942 copy of the periodical, "Ashlar: For Today's Boys - Tomorrow's Leaders."
Physical Description1 folder
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Consists of papers for the organizations Circus Fans Association, Circus Historical Society, and the Trenton Clown Club.
This series is arranged into three subseries: Circus Fans Association, Circus Historical Society, and Trenton Clown Club.
Physical Description2 boxes
Consists of papers of the Circus Fans Association, including its Constitution, membership rosters, photographs, reports, and materials related to meetings.
Arranged alphabetically by genre of material.
Physical Description1 box
1 folder
1 folder
3 folders
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Consists of papers related to the Circus Historical Society, including photographs, election materials, conventions, membership rosters, and newsletters.
Arranged by organization.
Physical Description1 box
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1 folder
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Consists of papers related to the Trenton Clown Club, including clippings, photographs, and correspondence.
Arranged alphabetically by genre of material.
Physical Description1 box
1 folder
1 box
1 folder
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Consists of papers related to performers such as Clyde Beatty, Ernestine Clark, and Ned Nelson, as well as others. Also includes papers related to various circuses.
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Physical Description8 boxes
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2 folders
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4 folders
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8 folders
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Consists of headbills, photographs, and articles for Renton Circus.
Arranged by genre of material.
Physical Description4 boxes
7 folders each with about 20 or more bills for circuses, including a color-printed one for P. T. Barnum, dated 1874. Evidently part of the Renton accession (1947) described in: Marguerite McAneny "Renton Collection of Programs and Playbills," Princeton University Library Chronicle VIII:187-189 1947 June.
Physical Description1 box
5 small parcels and 2 folders of bills, photographs, and other ephemera. Evidently part of the Renton accession 1947.
Physical Description1 box
Consists of broadsides, programs, posters, periodicals, clippings, scrapbooks and scrapbook pages, a photograph, engravings, and a blueprint, spanning the years 1870-1963, with the majority of materials from 1944. A small amount of the broadsides and posters are in Spanish, along with a German periodical. One of the scrapbooks is associated with the Schoene family. Some of the periodicals and newspapers in this addition include issues of Illustrated Circus Life, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and Sawdust and Spangles. Some of the circuses and performance groups represented in the publicity materials (broadsides, posters, programs, etc.) include Welch's National Circus and Theatre, Rose Kilian Great Southern Shows, Lewis Bros. 3 Ring Circus, and Spalding and Rogers' Circus.
There are racist textual and graphic depictions of African people in an October 1944 periodical from The American Weekly.
Physical Description1 box
Comprises set lists and prop lists for various pantomime play productions. There are over 35 set and prop lists, for pantomimes such as Dame Trot and Her Comical Cat, Asphodel or the Magic Pen, Mother Goose, Raoul, Jack and the Beanstalk, Red Gnome and the White Warrior, the Schoolmaster, Little Boy Blue, Dechalumeau, and other pantomimes. The manuscripts appear to be from the about the mid-19th century, with two items specifically dated 1866 April 28 and 1869 December 10, and the latter noted as being performed in Washington, D.C.
Physical Description1 box
Consists of miscellaneous items added during 2014 collections move.
Not arranged according to any arrangement scheme.
Physical Description1 box
1 box