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
Rose, Irene, and Edna Maretta
1media/cwb_158_054maretta_thumb.jpg2021-04-22T11:55:16-07:00Angela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1382942Acrobatic performers Rose, Irene and Edna Maretta.plain2021-04-26T06:24:29-07:001906Still imageMedia is provided here for educational purposes only.20180820080253Angela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1
A sibling group like none other, the sisters Irene and Maretta Rose were an astonishing acrobatic act. They performed as a duo in theaters before joining the circus, rising in popularity in the early 1900s. After joining the circus, they faced problems in certain states, authorities trying to stop them from performing under the assumption it was too dangerous and difficult for women to do. The circus staff simply let Rose and Irene speak for themselves on whether or not they wanted to perform, saying they could, “do as they please with their own bodies,” leaving the decision to them. And make their own decisions they did, performing their stunts anyway, to the delight of the newspapers.
