Circus & Allied Arts Collection

Photographs of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the 1920s are especially scarce, so these images by Charles Clarke, a leaper in the world-renowned aerial act, The Clarkonians, are truly a rare window back in time.

Witness the tremendous movement of the circus and experience intimate, unscripted moments with some of the sawdust circle’s brightest stars in this unique historical footage.

Of the approximately 400 known distinct route books in existence, more than 300 are represented here, including well-known circuses such as the Barnum & Bailey Circus and The Ringling Bros. Circus and lesser-known circuses such as the Adam Forepaugh and Sells Brothers Circus. These route books trace the journeys of a number of circuses that traveled across mostly the U.S. and Canada between the 1840s and 1960s.

Gamma Phi started life at Illinois State (Normal) University as a gymnastics fraternity in 1929 and it soon developed into a student organization that drew on Bloomington’s deep circus roots to entertain both campus and community. Since 1932, the Gamma Phi Circus has performed to a packed house every spring and this digital collection showcases the programs from those annual shows.

Typically oblong and text-heavy, these posters were often tacked up on poles by advance men to announce coming attractions. They used colorful language and bold black-and-white images to whip up enthusiasm and attract audiences. Cheaply produced and quickly discarded, relatively few heralds survive to the present day.

William Frederick Cody, more commonly known as "Buffalo Bill,” embodies the romance of an illusory Western frontier. This collection explores the enduring influence of Buffalo Bill on American culture and our persistent fascination with one its greatest showmen.

This collection is comprised primarily of the cherished photographs of a family that traveled the world together as a working flying return trapeze troupe—much of what has been digitized has not been seen outside of the Musselman family until now.

Images were captured in the saturated colors of Kodachrome slides and date from the early 1940s to the late 1950s as well as black and white film in the 1930s. Set within the context of the entire Braathen collection, these images provide insight to what happens just outside the canvas flaps of the circus tent.

Explore the world and writings of legendary showman Phineas Taylor Barnum, the man who revolutionized entertainment in 19th-century America.

The Flying Wards were an aerial act playing circuses, parks, fairs, and vaudeville stages across America from about 1903 into the 1930s. The postcards in this collection offer a peek into Eddie and Jennie Ward's world as they wrote home to their beloved mother, Fannie and their brother Elza.