Late 19th and Early 20th Century Circuses

Circus Lions- 1905

Circus' in the late 19th and early 20th century
     During the late 19th and early 20th century people began becoming interested in different forms of entertainment. During this time, the work week was shortened, allowing for more time to be spent on other things. People during this era were also making more money which meant more money to be spent on leisure activities. Up until this time, leisure was not something the average American believed in. Leisure was thought as being only for the more wealthy folks who did not have to work the long shifts most Americans did. 

     Because the "legitimate" theater, opera and other forms of high class entertainment were not affordable to the average American, people turned to the circus for entertainment. The circus allowed people to see many different types of exotic animals, daredevil stunts, and other unusual things all in one place, without the need to travel far from home. Admission to the circus was usually around $0.50 for adults and $0.25 for children, which would now be approximately $13 for adults and $6 for children when adjusted to the inflation. Most circuses could sneat about 4,000 people per show. The big top, a tent which covered the circus activities and kept the weather from affecting the performance, to some extent, was usually about 200 ft wide and 46 ft tall. Circuses used trains to carry all their equipment from location to location. They had special cars made to provide enough space for the each animals to travel safely. By the Year 1889, there were over 22 large traveling circuses. When the circus came to town, everything in the town shut down in order to allow people the opportunity to go to the circus. 

     The circus put out ads claiming to be the the "Greatest Show on Earth", showing pictures of many different daredevil stunts and attractions over exagerating the types of attractions to see at the circus. This was used to entice and interest people in coming to the show by allowing them to get a taste of what they would see. Many of the pictures portray unrealistic events, such as cats boxing. This made people come in hopes of seeing the mysterious and unbelievable attractions. The advertisements were exciting using vivid colors to further seduce people into wanting to see their show. Barnum & Bailey were one of the best advertisers of the late 19th and early 20th century. They lured many people into coming to see their show with the promise of seeing many unusual and exciting things. 

     Circuses featured many different acts. Most included exotic animals, muscians, trick riders, trapeze artists and tight rope walkers, juggler, clowns, and contortionist and gymnasts. These things, especially the exotic animals could not be seen any where else. People were excited to see tame wild life, such as lions, bears and elephants, performing different tricks. Another of the major attractions to the show were the circus sideshows. There circuses showcased what they called "Freaks". These were people with unusual abnormalities in their appearance. Some of the more famous freaks were "Gorilla Girl", Lady Giantess and Peter the small, Alice Dehorty the bearded lady, Jojo the Dog Faced Boy, and Ella the Camel girl. These people were born with rare deformities which people were drawn to looking at. 

     One of the biggest circuses accomplishments was providing a show which was pleasing for all ages. They offered "Freak shows" for the adults and many different attractions specifically directed toward children. This allowed families to spend time together at the circus on their days off. Circus owners planned for their shows to appeal to everyone in order to raise attendance to the circus and ultimately make more money off of each show.

    Today, C

Barnum & Bailey 1890 advertisement

FineArtAmerica.com

Hall Family Circus- Evansville, Wiscinsin-1900

evansvillehistory.net

Barnum &Bailey 1896 advertisement

Antiquetrader.com

High Wire Acrobats- 1907

Retronaut.com

Strong Women-1904

Retronaut.com

Tight Rope Walker-1908

Retronaut.com

Model Circus ticket

ColumbiaMissourian.com

Circus Women- 1900

EngageWisconsin.org

Barnum & Bailey advertisement

Collectorsquest.com

Circus Acrobats balancing on the back of horses-1904

Retronaut.com

Ringling Bros and Branum & Bailey's Combined elephants- 1918

Retronaut.com

Elephants parading down the street as the Barnnes Circus comes to New York-1891

Retronaut.com

Elephant almost stampeding three boy, Barnnes Circus -1891

Retronaut.com

Trapeze- 1907

Retronaut.com

Sad Clown- 1902

Retronaut.com

Ellis Island

Ellis Island at the height of immigration

Faces of America was a very interesting video that opened my eyes to how diverse our nation is. It really emphasizes that the majority of people in our culture are, or have immigrant ancestors, including movie stars, Hollywood directors and even Olympic gold medalist. I find it very interesting the reason why the majority of their ancestors or parents left was to improve their living conditions and for their children to have a better life than they had.It's incredible that we have such a diverse collaboration of cultures in our nation. The immigrants who have come over here to make a better life for themselves and for their children are the ones who, in my opinion have lead the nation to the great height that it currently is. Due to their strong work efforts and willingness to persevere even through hard times, these people have created the strong, hardworking work force that we have in this nation.

Unfortunately, due to that I am adopted, I know nothing about my family history. I find it so interesting learning about where other people have come from and I feel like there is such a strong connection with knowing where you come from and your culture. I hope that one day I will have the opportunity to pursue my ancestry and find out where my ancestors are from and why they chose to move here.  

John D Rockefeller

      John D Rockefeller was a brilliant, hard working man. Born on July 8, 1839, John was the second of six children. Even as a child John was determined. He started raising and selling Turkeys,  growing potatoes to sell and selling candy to neighbors to earn a little more money than his childhood chores gave him. At a young age he was already selling stock to his neighbors. He studied hard in school and was always on his best behavior. In his childhood his dad was rarely present. His father, a traveling salesman, sold plant remedies to people all over. John, like his father, was a great businessman. His first official job was at Hewitt and Tuttle as a Bookkeeper. Even when he was just starting to work there and only making about $500/ year,  John always donated 6-10% of his salary to charity. As a child, he set his goals as, "To Make $100,000 and to make it to 100 years old.
      John accomplished his first goal, many times over. In 1859 he and a friend named Maurice B. Clark went into the produce commission business together. By 1863, John had built an oil refinery in Cleveland. Although the refinery was owned by Andrews Clark and commercial oil was new, this job greatly boosted Rockefeller's career experience and  got his name out there. In 1865, Rockefeller bought out  Clark for $72,500 and used it to establish the Rockefeller and Andrews firm. After this point Rockefeller started one by one, buying out any and all competition he had, and also he took out anyone who required him to pay for things. especially when they had a high price.

Halek Energy Partners

     Rockefeller never quite made it to 100 years old but he did however make it to 97. As the Founder of Standard Oil  company, Founder of the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University and having a net worth of $663.4 Billion dollars, making him the first American worth more than $1 billion, Rockefeller did more with his life than he could have ever imagined. Without Rockefeller the world would not industrially be where we are today. He played a big impact on the Industrial Revolution. As the owner and founder of the dominating Oil industry during the industrial revolution, Rockefeller deserves all his wealth for all of his hard work.Though many during this time period looked negatively at monopolies, because Rockefeller built his way up to where he was through hard work, he is one of the only honest monopoly owners of his time, in my opinion.


tarbell.allegheny.edu
PBS.org
USHistory.com

Not So Innocent Indian Stereotypes

The "Red Man" from Peter Pan
Ward Kimball Animation

      I am sure in most people's childhood they watched Peter Pan and believed it was an innocent film about a boy and his friends who live in a fictional world where they never grow up. However there is so much more to this film, that as a young child, you wouldn't pick up on. If you think back to the movie, Peter Pan, Wendy and her brothers all met some Native Americans while on their territory. This is becomes very stereotypical and racist when you notice that the Native Americans in this scene are portrayed as being of an unrealistic bright red skin tone. The Native American stereotypes are further exemplified when they start singing a song about "What makes the red man red" while dancing around wildly, smoking, and patting at their mouths. It is commonly asked why is this so offensive? Why do people get so offended at such an petty thing? I think we all can see how the unrealistic red skin can be offensive but what is more important is that we realize that this is falsely representing Indians. One would think that because this film was made almost twenty years ago,  there isn't such misrepresentation of Indians anymore. This, unfortunately, isn't the case.
      In recent news, Urban Outfitters was sued for one of their collections,which has "Navajo" clothing and accessories. At first glance this seems like it wouldn't be such a big deal with the collection including Navajo inspired beaded necklaces, socks and other such things. But when you look more at the collection, you will see that this is also included among underwear and even a flask which have a Navajo inspired pattern on them. This is very distasteful. Not only is this embarrassing for the company to be putting out on its shelves but it is also embarrassing for the descendants of the Navajo tribe. Just like so many other nationalities, the Navajos do not want to be portrayed in this way, nor do they want these items to seem to be in association with them. This has many people of the Navajo heritage angry about the false representation that Urban Outfitters is placing by refusing to pull the line.

Urban Outfitters "Navajo" Line
Jezebel.com

A picture of Pocahontas and 

John Smith from the Disney movie

Pocahontas

Fanpop- Pocahontas

Historic portrait of the Real Pocahontas in 

Londan, England at age 21. This was painted

 months before her death.

pocahontas.morenus.org

There has been much controversy over the Disney production of Pocahontas. The Powhatan Indians have had major problems with the way that Disney portrayed the story due to the fact that the story told was not historically accurate. Disney romanticized the story, transforming what would have been a little girl into a young woman. Pocahontas was captured at age 17 by John Rolfes group and she married him in order to get out of prison. John Smith, the man she fell in love with in the movie, would have been 11 years older than her, although in the Disney film he seemed to be her age. John Smith doesn't tell the story of how Pocahontas saved him for 17 years after it supposedly happened. Scholars believe that it is very unlikely that this incident ever truly happened due to the fact that John Smith never wrote about this the year it would've happened and also because since she died at 21, she was dead before he told it. Also, he had apparently told many stories of about the same content, but substituted many different woman's names each time. So why is this so bad? Well, the Powhatan nation is angry that Disney chose to do their first historical film in a non historical, hyper-sexualized and romanticized way. Pocahontas is portrayed as a sexy young, large breasted woman with a very slim, yet curvy figure.  Members of the Powhatan nation confronted Disney and even offered to help them become more historically and culturally accurate but Disney refused saying that the story was "accurate, responsible and respectable." Many of the tribe members find it distasteful that Disney also over portrayed the Native Americans relationship with nature. Native Americans were very close to nature however, some of the portrayals of this, such as the fact that she is friends with a raccoon and a humming bird suggest that she is distant from civilization. 

      The hyper sexualization of Indian woman in film, doesn't stop there. It's not just in movies that we see this. Native American Halloween costumes are short, low cut and very revealing. These costumes also come along with very distasteful and audacious distasteful descriptions such as " make a splash at your next rain dance", "no peekee in her teepee", and  "show the guys there is still undiscovered territory for them to claim". This is so out right rude, condescending and distasteful. Why do people believe that this type of behavior is okay? That it is acceptable to publish this type of stuff when selling a product? And why do people believe it is acceptable to dress up like a Native American? Being Native American is a race, just as Caucasian and African American.  People do not buy costumes labeled "African American costume" so why do we as people think its acceptable to dress as Native Americans? Pictured to the right is a Native American costume sold at Crazy For Costumes.com.

      I believe that the history of Native Americans is important for people to know and that is important for us as humans to respect their culture. Many of the portrayals of Native Americans are very stereotypical and condescending or just straight up not true. This is the result of uneducated people making assumptions and using racial slurs. This is why it is very important that people think before they speak and don't make uneducated comments. If we as a society made a better effort to learn about Native Americans and their culture, we would realize how misrepresenting and condescending all on these representations are toward Native Americans.

Google Books Pocahontas
ABCNews
Party City

Powhatan

NPR.org