Photograph from about 1889 - 1890, showing the front doors of P. T. Barnum and Nancy Fish Barnum's home Marina in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The pair... Show morePhotograph from about 1889 - 1890, showing the front doors of P. T. Barnum and Nancy Fish Barnum's home Marina in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The pair of oak doors features a total of eight intricately carved square panels, and each door has the same four designs, arranged in vertical formation. The craftsperson who carved these panels is unknown. The doorplates and doorknobs, probably made of brass, are also intricately detailed, as was the style of hardware in the late 1800s. There is a push-button doorbell located on the doorframe at the right. This photograph is one in a set of large-format interior and exterior photographs by Farini Photographs, a studio that was located at 61 Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The reverse side of the thick paperboard mount is black save for the photographer's imprint in gold. The photograph has its original off white envelope on which is printed "No., Name, Remarks" with blank spaces to be filled in. This envelope is for photograph No. 5, which is described in the Remarks area as "carved oak doors at 'Marina.'" Marina was designed in an eclectic Queen Anne style by architects Longstaff and Hurd of Bridgeport. It was built in 1889 next to the Barnum family's 1869 mansion Waldemere, in the area of Seaside Park, facing Long Island Sound. When the new home was completed, Waldemere was taken down. Barnum built Marina specifically for his much younger second wife, knowing she would outlive him and would want a more modern, easier-to-maintain home than Waldemere. Presumably it was she who hired Farini to take the photographs so that she could show off the new home to her family and friends at home in England. Probably some years after the death of P. T. Barnum, when Nancy had remarried, she gave these photographs to the Joshua Cunliffe family, friends of hers who lived in England. The set later came into the possession of another person, and was subsequently obtained by an antiques dealer in Blackford Bridge, Bury, Lancashire, England. The photographs came to the attention of Barnum Museum Curator Kenneth B. Holmes, who purchased them on behalf of the museum. An article about the initial discovery of the photographs was published in the Bridgeport Sunday Post on January 24, 1971. Although Marina is no longer standing, various pieces from the home were acquired by local people when the structure was taken down. As of 2017, it is known that the doors still exist, owned by the descendants of the people who acquired them. Show less