Virtual Exhibitions

Nancy Barnum, born Nancy Fish, was Barnum’s second wife who he married mere weeks after Charity's death.  Nancy was about 40 years younger than Barnum and was, in fact, younger than any of his daughters.  She was the child of John Fish, a friend that Barnum had made over the course of his many trips toEngland.  Before the death of Charity, Barnum’s first wife, P.T. and Nancy had been pen pals and even traveled together.  None the less it was quite a shock to Barnum’s friends and family when he announced his plans for marriage. Though never mentioned by name in his autobiography even in his 1889 edition, Barnum mentions taking annual summer trips to Europe with his "wife" to visit his "English father-in-law".

The "Photo of the Week" highlights pictures from The Barnum Museum’s collection.  These pictures are posted on our website at: www.barnummuseumexhibitions.org,along with a brief description of the person, place or thing with in thepicture.  The "Photo of the Week" can also be found on Facebook.

This week’s picture is of Charity Barnum, P.T. Barnum’s first wife.  The pair met in Bethel, CT, Barnum’s home town, where Charity was a tailoress.  He fell for her quickly and they married before he was even twenty years of age. The couple did not always see eye to eye, as Charity was relatively prim and proper, the opposite of her gregarious jokester of a husband.  None the less, he cared for her deeply, calling her his perfect fit as a wife, mother, and friend, in his autobiography.  When her health began failing they moved out of Lindencroft, Barnum’s second beloved mansion, and into a home by the sea.

The "Photo of the Week" highlights pictures from The Barnum Museum’s collection.  These pictures are posted on our website at: www.barnummuseumexhibitions.org,along with a brief description of the person, place or thing within the picture.  The "Photo of the Week" can also be found on Facebook.

This week’s picture portrays P.T. Barnum and Commodore Nutt, a little person who gained almost as much fame as General Tom Thumb himself. Born George Washington Morrison Nutt, the Commodore first met Barnum in 1862. At the time Barnum was interested in finding a new act to replace Tom Thumb who had grown older and was not working as much as he once had. Nutt was shorter and younger than Tom Thumb and filled the position perfectly.  So much so, that Barnum called on the White House within months of hiring Commodore Nutt and the little performer shook the hand of President Abraham Lincoln.

The "Photo of the Week" highlights pictures from The Barnum Museum’s collection. These pictures are posted on our website at: www.barnummuseumexhibitions.org, along with a brief description of the person, place or thing within the picture. The Photo of the Week can also be found on Facebook.

This week’s picture is of Chang Yu Sing, exhibited by P.T. Barnum as the Chinese Giant. Chang Yu Sing was well over seven feet tall, and may have been over eight, as the caption on the bottom of the image claims. He was a man of many talents including immense strength, skill at chess, and the ability to speak several languages. Perhaps most interesting, is the fact that he achieved great fame in the United States at a time when people of Chinese descent were facing immense persecution. He came over just a year before the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned future Chinese Immigrants, was signed.

The "Photo of the Week" highlights pictures from The Barnum Museum’s collection. These pictures are posted on our website at: www.barnummuseumexhibitions.org, along with a brief description of the person, place or thing within the picture. The "Photo of the Week" can also be found on Facebook.

This week’s photo is of P.T. Barnum as a family man. The two children in the picture are his grandchildren. By the time Barnum passed away in 1891 he had lived to see not only a great many grandchildren, but a number of his great grandchildren as well. Barnum was immensely fond of his family and he liked to have them all together. He generally invited his entire family over for holidays. One Christmas he included the children so the number of chairs at the dinner table wouldn't number unlucky thirteen!

The "Photo of the Week" highlights pictures from The Barnum Museum’s collection. These pictures are posted on our website at: barnummuseumexhibitions.org, along with a brief description of the person, place or thing within the picture. The "Photo of the Week" can also be found on Facebook.

Following a research request on Facebook for the identification of these children, it came to our attention that this is a photograph of P.T. Barnum and his great-grandchildren.  His granddaughter, Helen Barnum Hurd, married Frank Rennell and their children Carita and Henry are in the above picture.  Carita dies at the age of six months.  Henry H. Rennell becomes a favorite of Barnum who refers to the child as "P.T. Rennell".  Perhaps some family traits were passed on!

Helen B. Rennel was one of P.T. Barnum’s granddaughters.  She shared a name with her mother, Barnum’s second child, Helen M. Hurd.  In 1871 her parents were divorced, which was a relatively rare occurrence for the time. Helen and her siblings remained in their father’s care, and near their grandfather, when their mother moved all the way to Colorado with her second husband. The previous week we shared a photograph of Helen's first two children, Henry and Carita, sitting with their great-grandfather.

The "Photo of the Week" highlights pictures from The Barnum Museum’s collection.  These pictures are posted on our website at: barnummuseumexhibitions.org,along with a brief description of the person, place or thing within the picture.  The "Photo of the Week" can also be found on Facebook.

This "Photo of the Week" is of Caroline Barnum Thompson, P.T. Barnum’s eldest daughter, who was born May 27, 1833. In 1852 she married David W. Thompson and, on the day of her wedding, her father’s mansion, Iranistan, was almost destroyed in a fire. Caroline travelled with her Father during Jenny Lind’s tour of America in 1850, and sometimes she even posed as Lind to help the singer slip past crowds of fans.  Once, while singing in church with her father, people craned their necks and strained their ears to hear the "voice of the angel" - thinking they were hearing Jenny Lind!

“Photo of the Week” highlights pictures from The Barnum Museum’s collection. These pictures are posted on our website at: barnummuseumexhibitions.org, along with a brief description of the person, place or thing within the picture. The "Photo of the Week" can also be found on Facebook.

Bridgeport Connecticut served as the circus’ winter quarters during Barnum’s reign as the Greatest Showman on Earth. In 1892, just a year after Barnum’s death, the New York Times ran an article describing what a visit to the winter quarters – aptly called “Barnum-and-Bailey-Town” - entailed.  With 1,400 employees and 400 horses alone, the winter scene on today’s Went Field Park must have been overwhelming.

Driven to the winter quarters in a gold circus wagon drawn by ten snow-white Norman horses, the press corps entered a different world.  They were given a tour of the grounds starting with the Master of Transportation, Mr. B. V. Rose.  Seeing the 85 animal cars, ten sleeper cars, and Bailey’s personal Pullman car alone would have taken hours in this circus city.  After seeing the quarters, they were treated to performances by the trained animals and the fifty acrobats.

“After applauding the athletes the newspaper men went to the training quarters and there saw cats, dogs, geese, pigs, storks, sheep,monkeys, zebras, lions, tigers, hyenas, panthers, leopards, wolves, and about everything else that passed through the deluge with Noah…” (New York Times,March 8, 1892)

It is amazing to think of the sheer organization, planning, materials, and food that would have gone into housing such a multitude of different people and animals.  Without the internet to Google a quick remedy for an animal’s ailment, without reliable refrigeration or fast food, without a phone– or even walkie talkies – to communicate across the acres of noisy animals,this Barnum-and-Bailey-Town was a ‘greatest show on earth’ unto itself!

To General U.S. Grant, twice President of the United States, etc:

Thus starts a letter from PT Barnum to General Grant regarding the purchase and display of General Grant’s personal collection of relics. Written on January 12, 1885 this letter addressed Grant’s recent debt to Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt which threw him into financial “embarrassment” and poverty. Barnum wanted to offer Grant “fine income” off of the display of Grant’s war trophies and international mementos given to him during his time as President and over the course of his trip around the world.

PT Barnum had met Grant on multiple occasions and the two, from Barnum’s autobiography, seemed to enjoy a friendship. Barnum met with him after the Civil War and collected a hat from General Grant to put in his collection of famous individual’s chapeaux which the General had worn during multiple military campaigns. In his defense of the 15th Amendment speech before Congress, Barnum mentions Grant’s resolve during the Civil War. After his letter to Grant concerning his collection, Barnum writes that he visited the General soon afterwards and was “politely received”. And here at the Barnum Museum we have a copy of General Grant’s memoirs signed to Nancy Fish Barnum.

Unfortunately, as payment for his debts, all of Grant’s wealth and property went to Mr. Vanderbilt with the condition that the trophies and relics “should be lodged in some safe public place in Washington, where all could see them” after the General’s death. Barnum of course tried arguing that millions of people would regret that Barnum hadn’t showcased the historical relics in his Museum.

Frederick Law Olmsted was born and buried in Hartford, Connecticut.  In his role as "father of landscape architecture" he transformed the cities of the Gilded Age through the use of public parks.  He felt the natural settings would improve the minds of those experiencing nature in the parks, that Americans would become happier, better adjusted and productive people if we had more exposure to nature. 

A decade before Olmsted's influential design of Central Park in New York City, Barnum was seeing the need for parks in the chaos of the urban world.  His ledger of letters from his 1845 European tour express this shared philosophy that parks provide health and well-being for city inhabitants. "Some distinguished individual has said that Regent's and Hyde Park are the lungs of London.  In building and improving our towns and cities in America, the "lungs" should never be forgotten.  They may be the means of annihilating disease and producing worlds of happiness."  While Barnum went on to create worlds of happiness through entertainment he did not abandon the idea of public parks. 

In late 1800s, PT Barnum donated land for Seaside Park in Bridgeport and Frederick Law Olmsted was hired to design the space.  Together, these two men helped give Bridgeport its moniker "Park City".  Later, Bridgeport would hire Olmsted again to design Beardsley Park.  The parks provide green space with romatic walkways and crafted waterfronts as an escape from the grim of the city, and a welcome resting point for visitors and inhabitants alike.