5 July 1810: Birth of P. T. Barnum, American Showman

P. T. Barnum is remembered as the circus showman and promoter of “The Greatest Show on Earth”, but he did not start his circus venture until he was 60. In his earlier career he took on many roles, becoming a newspaper publisher, an exhibitor of curiosities, a concert promoter and a theatre owner.

Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut, on 5 July 1810, one of the six children of Philo and Irene Barnum. His father died when Barnum was 15 years old, leaving the care of the family to the young Phineas.

Barnum did not find farm life agreeable but he did have a grasp of mathematics and business that would benefit his later career. After a variety of early jobs he first came to public notice as the publisher of the Herald of Freedom weekly newspaper in Danbury, Connecticut. Unfortunately, this notoriety derived largely from his three arrests for libel.

In 1829 Barnum married Charity Hallett. This was a relationship that would endure for 44 years and produce four daughters. The family moved to New York in 1834 and Barnum’s life as a showman began the following year.

The first curiosity he presented to the public was a blind slave called Joice Heth. Barnum claimed that she was the 161-year-old nurse of George Washington but, when she died in 1836, Joice Heth was exposed as the first of many hoaxes that Barnum would promote during his career.

In 1841 he purchased John Scudder’s American Museum on Broadway, New York. The five-storey museum, renamed Barnum’s American Museum, opened to the public on 1 January 1842 and was filled exhibits such as waxworks and stuffed animals. Over time Barnum shifted the focus of the museum from conventional attractions to more sensational exhibits.

Barnum was not afraid to mix genuine curiosities, like the Siamese twins Chang and Eng, with fakes, such as the Feejee mermaid, and his publicity was prone to exaggeration. His most successful, and profitable, exhibit was Charles Stratton, a dwarf who Barnum promoted as General Tom Thumb. During the 26 years that Barnum owned the museum it was visited by 82 million people.

While on a tour of Europe with General Tom Thumb, a tour that included a performance in front of Queen Victoria, Barnum heard about the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind and decided to take the biggest gamble of his career. Without hearing her sing, and with no knowledge of how she would be received by the American public, Barnum booked Lind to sing at 150 concerts over nine months for $1,000 per performance.

Promoted as “The Swedish Nightingale”, Barnum’s publicity of Lind created so much hype that 40,000 people welcomed her ship’s arrival. At the first concert on 11 September 1850, Lind performed in front of a capacity crowd of 5,000 people at Castle Garden in New York. So great was her success that she was able to renegotiate her contract with Barnum.

After the success of the Jenny Lind tour, Barnum turned his attention to theatre. His newly built theatre produced the plays of Shakespeare as well as contemporary works, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In 1855 Barnum published his autobiography, The Life of P. T. Barnum, Written by Himself, in which he revealed many of the hoaxes he had promoted during his career.

But the venture for which Barnum is remembered the world over did not start until he was 60 years old. In collaboration with W. C. Coup and Dan Castello, P. T. Barnum’s Grand Travelling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus opened on 10 April 1871 in Brooklyn. In true Barnum style it was promoted as “The Greatest Show on Earth”.

In 1881 the circus merged with James Bailey’s Great London Show and became the Barnum and London Circus. The following year the circus acquired Jumbo, a six-and-a-half-ton elephant, who was a popular attraction for the next three years before being hit by a train in 1885.

P. T. Barnum died in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 7 April 1891 at the age of 80. His obituary was published by one New York newspaper, at Barnum’s request, two weeks before he died so that he would have a chance to enjoy reading it. A showman to the end, one of Barnum’s final acts was to ask after the day’s receipts for the circus.

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