Born in Bethel, CT in 1810, Phineas Taylor Barnum was one of history’s most colorful characters. At the age of 21, he purchased a printing press and soon learned to use sensational advertising to capture the public’s attention and create what we today would call “buzz”. Barnum moved to New York City in 1834 and in 1841 opened Barnum’s American Museum, which featured over 500,000 artifacts, curiosities, and human attractions, including the Feejee Mermaid, Chang and Eng the “Siamese Twins”, and Sara Swan the “Tallest Girl in the World”. These exhibits made Barnum a financial success, but it was 26-inch-tall Charles Stratton, whom Barnum called “General Tom Thumb,” who brought him world-wide notoriety. Tom Thumb’s popularity culminated in a three-year world tour during which he and Barnum were given an audience with Queen Victoria.
Many people don’t know that in addition to being a successful showman, Barnum was also a politician. He once remarked, “It always seemed to me that a man who ‘takes no interest in politics’ is unfit to live in a land where the government rests in the hands of the people.” In 1865 he was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly. Just months later, as he stood addressing the legislature, he received a telegram informing him that his American Museum had burned down.
Barnum was sixty years old in 1870, when his Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus made its debut. It was the largest circus in the nation, covering five acres and seating 10,000 people, and Barnum soon began to refer to it as “The Greatest Show on Earth”. Jumbo, Barnum’s most famous elephant, joined the circus in 1882. Jumbo’s name soon became synonymous with anything enormous.
In 1875 Barnum was elected Mayor of Bridgeport and spent his term improving the city’s water supply, building affordable housing, and fighting discrimination against African Americans. He later served again in the General Assembly. But it is the showman and master of publicity—the man who continually amazed the public and transformed the small traveling circus into a three-ring extravaganza—that most of us remember today.
