Circus and Sideshow in the Long Nineteenth Century: A Documentary History
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- ISBN 9781032454924
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 29 Jun 2026
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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This volume contextualizes the circus as a cultural force in North America during the long nineteenth century. Individually, resources provide insight into the business, people, acts, and audience experience in a period that witnessed explosive growth of population, print media, technology, and amusement. The selections are intended to foster comfort with working through the combination of firsthand accounts, manuscripts, and marketing jargon that comprise research into the historical record of the circus. These varied sources also point to the intersection of entertainment and culture, situating the traveling circus as a mirror showing something of the character of the society it entertained.
Betsy Golden Kellem is a scholar of the unusual. She is the author of Jumping Through Hoops: Performing Gender in the Nineteenth Century Circus (Feminist Press, 2025). Her writing on circus and entertainment history has appeared in outlets including The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The Public Domain Review, Atavist Magazine, Smithsonian, Atlas Obscura, and Slate. Betsy is a two-time regional Emmy winner and has served on the boards of the Barnum Museum and the Circus Historical Society.
Jenny Leigh Du Puis is an Assistant Professor in the School of Fashion at Columbia College Chicago. In her scholarly career as a PhD candidate with Cornell University, she explores the past, present, and future of circus costume through presentations, publications, and the curation of digital and physical clothing exhibitions. Her professional career in circus costume includes working with such companies and organizations as Cirque Us, Circus Smirkus, Circus Couture, Circus Culture, Circus Juventas, Sunset Circus, and Cirque du Soleil's KÀ.
Jennifer Lemmer Posey is Tibbals Curator of Circus and Head of the Circus Archives at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, a campus of Florida State University. She has been working with circus collections and the diverse circus community for over twenty years.
