PT+Barnum

Seaburg, Alan. "P.T. Barnum." //Unitarian Universalist Association//. Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society, 1999. Web. 8 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) **Phineas Taylor Barnum, born July 5, 1810- April 7, 1891**
 * 2) Most influential American showman of 19th century
 * 3) Founder of first important public museum and creator of modern three-ring circus, Barnum & Bailey circus
 * 4) Born in small community ofBethel,Connecticut
 * 5) As a child, attended church inBethel, the Congregational
 * 6) For some years he served as a clerk of theUniversalistChurchinDanbury,Connecticut
 * 7) First job was clerking at his fathers country store then in 1820’s-30’s, worked as a clerk inBrooklyn, ran fruit and confectionary store back home and was a lottery agent in PA
 * 8) 1829, married Charity Hallett, later had 4 children
 * 9) Edited his own newspaper inDanbury(1831 & 1834) called the Herald of Freedom
 * 10) Paper was about bringing a union of church and state; attempted to and was charged 3 times with libel for statements he made about opponents, convicted and was incarcerated for 60 days
 * 11) Spent time in jail comfortably, had constant visitors including a visit from a local Universalist minister and his release was a public relations event
 * 12) First got into show business with his exhibit of Joice Heth (claimed to be the 161- year-old nurse to George Washington)
 * 13) In 1836-37 took a small circus on tour throughout the South
 * 14) Prepared him in 1842 to open theAmericanMuseumin NYC; made his first fortune
 * 15) Exhibits, spectaculars, lecture hall, 3,000-seat theater provided entertainment & learning over years to 37 million people
 * 16) In NYC, attended the Fourth Universalist Society whose minister Edwin H Chapin became his close friend
 * 17) Generous contributor to its Sunday school committee and life member of its Chapin Home for the Aged and Infirm
 * 18) In 1848, moved toBridgeport,Connecticutwhere he was to live until his death
 * 19) Immediately became connected with its Universalist society
 * 20) During last 10 years of life, was a church trustee and every now and then occupied the pulpit

University of Virginia. "The Life of P.T. Barnum." //American Studies at the University of Virginia//. Web. 8 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) A tornado damaged theBarnumMuseumon June 24, 2010
 * 2) It struckParkCityand the repair damage was $6 to $7 million
 * 3) Since the repairs would require relocating and moving the entire collection of artifacts, they determined it would best in the long term to fix other parts of building and do a complete overhaul of exhibition space
 * 4) This would cost about $15 to $17 million and would take more than two years to complete
 * 5) When it reopens, it will have an exhibit space where the buildings early history from when it first opened in 1883 will be shown
 * 6) Gained his appreciation for art of entertainment from grandfather
 * 7) Writes in his memoirs, “My grandfather would go farther, wait longer, work harder, and contrive deeper, to carry out a practical joke, than for anything else under heaven.”
 * 8) Didn’t like working on a farm as a young boy
 * 9) Father died in 1825, had responsibility of taking care of his 4 brothers and sisters
 * 10) took up lottery schemes and rewarded them with green bottles of tin ware to the winners
 * 11) His grandfather was pleased with his scheme
 * 12) Barnum opened up a fruit and candy store with the help of his grandfather 3 years later
 * 13) After exhibiting Joice Heth(elderly African-American woman) joined Aaron Turner’s Traveling Circus, after several years knew it wasn’t his calling
 * 14) Said, “I was thoroughly disgusted with the trade of a traveling showman… yet I always regarded it, not as an end, but as a means to something better.”
 * 15) 1841, established hisAmericanMuseumin NYC
 * 16) Enjoyed a 24-year run until it burned to ground on July 13, 1865
 * 17) In 1880, merged with James Anthony Bailey to form now infamous Barnum and Bailey Circus
 * 18) 1833, his earnings from circus totaled $1,419,498.
 * 19) By 1891, his heart was beginning to fail, he maintained his self-spectacle until the end and was curious to how people would remember him so he granted The Evening Sun permission to print his obituary prematurely
 * 20) Less than a month later after obituary appeared, he died

"P.T. Barnum." //Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey//. RINGLING BROS. AND BARNUM & BAILEY ®, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH. Web. 8 Oct. 2011. [].


 * 1) No proof that he said, “there’s a sucker born every minute.”
 * 2) He did say, “every crowd has a silver lining” and acknowledged that “the public is wiser than many imagine”
 * 3) Throughout his 80 years, gave entertainment to earn the title “master showman”
 * 4) LIFE magazine said he was “the patron saint of promoters”
 * 5) Oldest of 5 children
 * 6) Showed his salesmanship at an early age, selling lottery tickets when he was 12 years old
 * 7) At 25, paid $1,000 to obtain services of Joice Heth
 * 8) He said she was “Unquestionably the most astonishing and interesting curiosity in the world!”
 * 9) Exhibited her inNew YorkandNew England, earning about $1,500 per week
 * 10) 1841, purchased Scudder’sAmericanMuseumon Broadway in NY
 * 11) A year later, he exhibited “The Feejee Mermaid,” an embalmed ( preserve a corpse from decay, originally with spices and now usually by arterial injection of a preservative) mermaid purchased nearCalcuttaby aBostonseaman
 * 12) Nobody doubted Barnum’s ability to capture the imagination of public
 * 13) His name will forever be connected with great American circus, but often said that his greatest success came in 1850 when he presented European opera star Jenny Lind to American Public
 * 14) “The Swedish Nightingale” sang 95 concerts for Barnum
 * 15) 1854, wrote and published his autobiography: The Life of P.T. Barnum
 * 16) Was 60 years old when hisGrandTravelingMuseumand Circus made its debut
 * 17) At the time, largest circus venture in American history; Barnum grossed $400,000 in his first year of operation
 * 18) 1872, he referred to his enterprise as “The Greatest Show on Earth”—and it was
 * 19) Barnum & Bailey went separate ways in 1885, but got together once again in 1888; that year the “Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth” first touredAmerica
 * 20) Died in his sleep, and his last words were about the show, which was appearing inNew York’sMadisonSquareGardenat the time; was laid to rest atMountainGroveCemeteryinBridgeport,Connecticut

"P.T. Barnum." //Answers.com//. Reference Answers. Web. 8 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) Best known as: 19th century American huckster
 * 2) BoughtAmericanMuseumand turned it into a carnival and an exhibition hall for the presentation of “freaks”
 * 3) Such as “The Feejee Mermaid” and the ultra-diminutive General Tom Thumb (real name: Charles Stratton) who was a midget; Barnum’s greatest attraction who was a native of Bridgeport, 25 inches tall, weighed 15 pounds and employed by Barnum in 1842
 * 4) He died in 1883, age of 45, made millions of dollars and delighted international audiences
 * 5) He entertained Queen Victoria, King Louis Philippe, and other royalty with his songs, dances and impersonations in miniature
 * 6) Of the 82 million tickets Barnum sold during his lifetime for various attractions, Tom Thumb sold over 20 million
 * 7) Brilliant and shameless promoter
 * 8) Became one of the richest men inAmerica
 * 9) Successful acts: European opera singer Jenny Lind, Jumbo the elephant and conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker
 * 10) Barnum & Bailey’s Circus eventually became today’s Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
 * 11) Museum closed in 1868 after several fires, had 82 million visitors there
 * 12) The elephant Jumbo was featured in their circus
 * 13) James A. Bailey (1847-1906)
 * 14) His grandfather gave him a piece of land known asIvyIsland, at 10 years old he discovered it to be “a worthless piece of barren land.”
 * 15) Joice Heth was a disabled African American woman who, her sponsors claimed was 160 years old and had been the infant George Washington’s nurse
 * 16) He saw her as a human curiosity and purchased the right to exhibit her along with the documents validating her age, and set her upon her couch in Niblo’s Garden in NY; died in 1836 and autopsy proved she had been no more than 80 years old
 * 17) In 1840, he was broke and poor and then saw that the struggling Scudder’sAmericanMuseumwas for sale so he determined to buy it; by the end of 1842, it was his and a year later he was out of debt
 * 18) At Museum people could see educated dogs and fleas, automatons, jugglers, ventriloquists, living statuary, albinos, obese men, bearded women, a great variety of singing and dancing acts, models of Paris and Jerusalem, glassblowing, knitting machines, African Americans performing a war dance, conjoined twins, flower and bird shows, whales, mermaids, rare animals and an aquarium
 * 19) To go see this, it was all for twenty-five cents and children half price; all together there were 600,000 exhibits during its existence
 * 20) His great model ofNiagara Fallswith real water was 18 inches high, Feejee Mermaid was really a monkey’s head and torso fused to a fish’s tail, Woolly Horse of Frozen Rockies was really inIndiana