Agency through Otherness: Portraits of Performers in Circus Route Books, 1875-1925

Banished to the Annex

Black sideshow bands – first documented in 1881 within Milner Library’s Circus Route Books Digital Collection – were relegated to the circus annex, constrained by compounding layers of liminality. The circus itself was a marginal (albeit culturally significant) stage, literally located at the outskirts of society near the railroads upon which it traveled. Black musicians performed within an additional layer of marginality. Sideshows housed those performers labeled as “exotic,” and musicians were expected to perform as such. This presentation details how Black musicians responded to their forced otherness, highlighting their agency within a confined stage. Through ingenious spectacles, they deployed the marketing of exoticism onto the audience’s desire for the novel and the authentic. Possessing both musical and managerial skills, they utilized their market share to transform themselves from employees to autonomous business owners. The first circus that a Black band played with was Sells Bros. We wonder, were the Sells Bros ethical or economical?

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