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
The Charlotte News
12021-04-09T08:59:01-07:00Angela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1382941Citation Pageplain2021-04-09T08:59:01-07:00Angela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1"Pretty Jap Girl and Dixie". The Charlotte News. 15 September 1918.
12021-03-22T12:26:07-07:00Tetu Robinson12Biographyplain2021-05-03T16:46:59-07:00Being born or marrying into the circus life was a very common occurrence. However, being taken in and becoming a daughter of the actual circus itself is a life unique to the circus star, Tetu Robinson (Yasu Mary Agnes Kabayashe). There is some controversy about Tetu's family, with newspapers and genealogical records having conflicting accounts. One newspaper reported that Tetu’s parents were performers in the John Robinson circus but passed away during their act when she was still young.26 Another account stated that Tetu had only come to America with her father who performed and passed away after an injury from his act, The Robinson family adopting her from there. 27
In a family account, researched and written by a descendant of the Robinson family, he reported that Tetu immigrated to the United States in 1906 with an acrobatic family. Just a year later, it is written in an article that Tetu left her family (who was still alive) and was adopted at the age of fourteen.28It is unsure what the real truth about her family is, but nonetheless, Tetu was adopted, her name changed, and was sent to the top schools to prepare her for the life of a star circus performer, equestrienne, and equilibrist.
