Agency through Otherness: Portraits of Performers in Circus Route Books, 1875-1925Main MenuThe American Experiment: Circus in ContextCircus performers and American history timelineRouting the Circus: The Things They CarriedCircus Routes Map, 1875-1925Ethnological Congresses and the Spectacleby Rebecca FitzsimmonsOutsiders in Demand: Chinese and Japanese Immigrant Performersby Angela Yon and Mariah WahlShattering Gender Roles: Women in the Circusby Elizabeth HarmanSide Show Sounds: Black Bandleaders Respond to ExoticismAnnexed Circus Musicians by Elizabeth C. HartmanNative Performance and Identity in The Wild West Showby Mariah WahlShowmen's Rests: The Final CurtainCircus Cemetery Plots by Elizabeth C. HartmanList of PerformersPerformers covered in this exhibitBibliography & Further ReadingsBibliography and readings for each chapterAcknowledgementsAngela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1
Founders Online. “From George Washington to Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, 9 January 1790."
12021-05-01T14:25:09-07:00Angela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1382941Citation Pageplain2021-05-01T14:25:10-07:00Angela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1Founders Online, “From George Washington to Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, 9 January 1790," accessed April 25, 2021, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-04-02-0363.
The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment for promoting human happiness. -George Washington, 17901
The circus represents a microcosm of American culture with its depictions of imaginary reality. It became integral in shaping America’s culture during the fifty or so years bookending the turn of the 20th century. The circus reigned supreme in minds as one of the first forms of mass entertainment.
Concurrently, the United States was a very young governing country. America formed a new experimental government of the people, by the people, and for the people, with liberty and justice for all. Are the democratic principles of equal rights and government by a majority, capable of being carried into practical operation to all people within the structures of power? Was it working and how was it working for circus performers?
In the timeline, view the exhibit’s highlighted performers in the context of events during the period to understand the confines and space in which they lived.