Barnum and Bailey Circus Poster Collection : A Troupe of Australian Bushmen and Maories
Date
circa 1870
Credits
- Phineas Taylor Barnum Designer
- James Anthony Bailey Founder
Format
- Poster 1685
Type of Work
- Finished work 5481
Large festive scene. Women and children depicted. Male aboriginies are dancing and celebrating while holding boomerang. One man is tied to a tree, left center. Huts or housing structures can be seen in background in a clearing in the trees. This tableau is typical of 19th Century American popular perceptions of indigenous peoples. The poster is one of many fine examples of circus posters printed by the Strobridge Lithograph Company of Cincinnati in the late-19th Century for American entrepreneur and cultural icon P.T. Barnum and his "Barnum and Bailey Circus"
A Troupe of Australian Bushmen and Maories