Advertisement: Puzzle featuring "P. T. Barnum's Trick Mules"
Ticket
Souvenir
Unknown creator, American (associated with)
1871 (Date manufactured/created)
Paper Documentary Artifact
2.75 in H
X
2.25 in W
Promotional ephemera advertising Barnum’s Great Traveling Exposition in 1871. This item dates to Barnum's earliest involvement as a circus entrepreneur. T
he bright yellow square of card stock looks similar to a ticket, but the information it contains suggests it was a give-away or gimmick to induce people to purchase tickets. It is a small puzzle featuring "P. T. Barnum's Trick Mules" and was meant to be cut apart. The reverse side informs the holder, "For a key to this curious puzzle, inquire within the tents of P. T. Barnum's Colossal Exhibition." Above the two images of bucking mules there is a partial picture of two riders in costume. The instructions (printed at the bottom state) that the card was to be cut along the two horizontal lines to create three pieces, and then arranged so that the riders are correctly positioned on the two mules. Copyright information printed along the left and right edges states that it was entered into the Office of the Librarian of Congress by S. Loyd in 1871.
The remaining text on the reverse advertises P. T. Barnum's Great Traveling Exposition as "Seven Mammoth Shows in One," featuring 100,000 curiosities, 500 wild animals of all descriptions, and 100 male and female performers. Admission for adults was 50 cents and for children, half-price. It notes that every feature in the Colossal Exhibition "is absolutely Moral, Chaste, Refined, and Instructive." Along the bottom, partly obscured by a white label, there is advertising for Barnum's autobiography which could be purchased at different price points depending on the binding.
Barnum is best known today for the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth, but his circus ventures did not come about until he was in his early 60s. His first circus, in the early 1870s, was called P. T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus. Barnum subsequently opened the New York Hippodrome with similar acts. In the 1880s, competition from other circuses increased. A merger between Barnum’s show and the Great London Show of Cooper, Bailey, and Hutchinson formed the circus called Barnum and London. Barnum's partnership with James A. Bailey in 1887 formed Barnum & Bailey, which continued to be managed by Bailey after Barnum's death in 1891. After Bailey's death in 1906, the Ringling Brothers bought Barnum & Bailey and operated it separately from their own circus. In 1919 the two were combined to form Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. This circus gave its final performance on May 21, 2017.
he bright yellow square of card stock looks similar to a ticket, but the information it contains suggests it was a give-away or gimmick to induce people to purchase tickets. It is a small puzzle featuring "P. T. Barnum's Trick Mules" and was meant to be cut apart. The reverse side informs the holder, "For a key to this curious puzzle, inquire within the tents of P. T. Barnum's Colossal Exhibition." Above the two images of bucking mules there is a partial picture of two riders in costume. The instructions (printed at the bottom state) that the card was to be cut along the two horizontal lines to create three pieces, and then arranged so that the riders are correctly positioned on the two mules. Copyright information printed along the left and right edges states that it was entered into the Office of the Librarian of Congress by S. Loyd in 1871.
The remaining text on the reverse advertises P. T. Barnum's Great Traveling Exposition as "Seven Mammoth Shows in One," featuring 100,000 curiosities, 500 wild animals of all descriptions, and 100 male and female performers. Admission for adults was 50 cents and for children, half-price. It notes that every feature in the Colossal Exhibition "is absolutely Moral, Chaste, Refined, and Instructive." Along the bottom, partly obscured by a white label, there is advertising for Barnum's autobiography which could be purchased at different price points depending on the binding.
Barnum is best known today for the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth, but his circus ventures did not come about until he was in his early 60s. His first circus, in the early 1870s, was called P. T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus. Barnum subsequently opened the New York Hippodrome with similar acts. In the 1880s, competition from other circuses increased. A merger between Barnum’s show and the Great London Show of Cooper, Bailey, and Hutchinson formed the circus called Barnum and London. Barnum's partnership with James A. Bailey in 1887 formed Barnum & Bailey, which continued to be managed by Bailey after Barnum's death in 1891. After Bailey's death in 1906, the Ringling Brothers bought Barnum & Bailey and operated it separately from their own circus. In 1919 the two were combined to form Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. This circus gave its final performance on May 21, 2017.
A Gift of the Discovery Museum, Bridgeport, Connecticut
2003.009.073