Description
Originally put in store windows and posted on sheds, barns, buildings, walls and fences, these 18 extremely rare posters, most not prior to now reproduced, are collected together for the first time. The quality of reproduction is excellent: reproduced in full color immediately from the originals, these posters have been printed in an extra large format and on coated stock in order that each and every detail is clear. They’re an exciting visual history, capturing the pageantry and color that the circus used to be and is. They’re also extremely fine examples of almost 50 years of poster art and American advertising.
There are acrobats, elephants, tigers, lions, parades, tents, trains, and plenty of specialized acts: May Wirth, the Riding Rooneys, the Astounding Clarkonians, and so forth. The posters date from the 1890s to the 1940s, and include one by Norman Bel Geddes. They feature many American circuses: Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey, Sells, Sparks, Hagenbeck-Wallace. The historical introduction and captions are by Charles Philip Fox, Director of Research and Development with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.