P.T Barnum

Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut, his father worked as an inn and storekeeper. Barnum started working as a storekeeper then later moved to New York City in1834. In 1835 he began his career as a showman. He bought an exhibition of a blind and partially paralyzed African-American woman. Her name was Joice Heth claimed to have been the nurse for George Washington. She also claimed to be over one hundred and sixty years old. When she died, in 1836, it was discovered that she was only seventy.

With a small company and this woman to kick start his career, Barnum toured America until 1839. He bought the American Museum on Broadway and Ann street, New York City, in 1841. He renamed the museum “Barnum’s American Museum”. With plenty new exhibits, it became one of the most popular showplaces in the United States. By 1843, his act included Charles Stratton “General Tom Thumb”. The Fiji Mermaid and Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker.

In July of 1865 the museum on Broadway and Ann St burned down. Barnum reopened the museum in a new location shortly after also in New York City. Unfortunately, it too burned to the ground in March 1868.

In 1871 he started the P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Circus Menagerie, Caravan and Hippodrome, a Traveling Amalgamation of Circus Menagerie and Museum of Freaks. This traveling circus went all over the United Stated and even came up to Brockville, Ontario, Canada on June 1st of 1877.

The circus life lost Barnum permanently in April 1891. He was buried in his home town Bridgeport, Connecticut, in Mountain Grove cemetery. There was a statue made in 1893 at the Seaside Park, by the waters of Bridgeport. His circus was sold to the Ringling Brothers in July 1907.