P. T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman and businessman. He started his career in New York City by showing off a slave he owned named Joice Heth. He told people that Joice was 161 years old, Barnum removed her teeth to make her look older.[1] This made him famous at a young age. After her death, he showed off her dead body in a public autopsy.[2]
Phineas Taylor Barnum | |
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 Phineas Taylor Barnum photo by Mathew Brady, c.1860 | |
| Born | Phineas Taylor Barnum July 5, 1810 |
| Died | April 7, 1891 (aged 80) |
| Cause of death | Stroke |
| Resting place | Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport |
| Political party | Democratic (1824-54) Republican (1854-91) |
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In New York City, Barnum founded two American Museums. In these museums, he showed real acts such as General Tom Thumb and hoaxes such as the Fiji mermaid. He introduced Jenny Lind to the public. After fire destroyed his second museum, Barnum created a circus. In the circus he displayed Jumbo the elephant. He suggested the circus setting for Horatio Alger, Jr.'s book The Young Acrobat.[3] Barnum is also well known for saying "There's a sucker born every minute."
He may have been the first "show business" millionaire. Barnum said "I am a showman by profession,"[4] but he was also an author and publisher. For a while, he was also a politician.
Movies
Barnum was portrayed by Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman (2017).
P. T. Barnum Media
Entertainers associated with Barnum: Charles Stratton ("General Tom Thumb") and his bride Lavinia Warren, alongside her sister Minnie and George Washington Morrison Nutt ("Commodore Nutt")
1866 newspaper advertisement for Barnum's American Museum located on Ann Street in Manhattan
Castle Garden, New York, venue of Lind's first American concerts
Parody of Lind's first American tour for Barnum, New York City, October 1850
Barnum with Commodore Nutt, photograph by Charles DeForest Fredricks
Book engraving of the winter quarters of Barnum's circus in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Share of the Barnum and Bailey Ltd, issued January 24, 1902
"Hum-Bug", a cartoon by H. L. Stephens (1851)
Caricature of an elderly Barnum in the London magazine Vanity Fair, November 1889
P. T. Barnum, sculpted by Thomas Ball (1887), Seaside Park, Bridgeport, Connecticut
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References
- ↑ Washington, Harriet A. (2006). Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Anchor Books. pp. 86-89, 92. ISBN 978-0-7679-1547-2.
- ↑ Mansky, Jackie (2017-12-22). "P.T. Barnum Isn't the Hero the "Greatest Showman" Wants You to Think". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
- ↑ Hoyt, Edwin. 1974. Horatio's Boys. Chilton Book Co. p. 145.
- ↑ Kunhardt, Kunhardt & Kunhardt 1995, p. vi
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