The Barnum Museum

You can readily find letters in this database between Mark Twain and P.T. Barnum, complete with annotations pointing to important details in the documents.

P.T. Barnum's autobiography is a quintessential read for anyone interested in getting to know the man behind the "Greatest Show on Earth". His life's adventures are thrilling, entertaining, and remarkably educational.

This book was written by her husband and looks at her musical talent and career. As her accompanist, Otto Goldschmidt had first hand experience of Lind's performance capabilities.

Ever wonder what it would be like to walk the halls of The American Museum? Created by major academic institutions such as CUNY and George Mason University, this site seeks to recreate the Museum and find the answer to whom burned it down in 1865.

"The Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann photographs includes the work of Eisenmann, Frank Wendt, and others specialized in creating and marketing photographs of circus sideshow and dime museum performers in New York City during the latter part of the 19th century."

Hosted by the Circus World Museum and the Circus Historical Society, this research center has a plethora of digitally available resources including route books. Questions concerning the circus after 1891, the year of PT Barnum's death, are best answered here!

A state-by-state listing of collections and research sites for topics related to the circus.

The McCaddon Collection of the Barnum and Bailey Circus consists of correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, and other material collected by business manager Joseph T. McCaddon prior to the 1907 merger of the circus with Ringling Bros. While the bulk of this collection falls after Barnum's death in 1891, this is an invaluable collection.