Fine linen handkerchief with PTB monogram embroidered in red, brown and cream on a corner of the off-white linen square. The handkerchief belonged to P. T. Barnum. The style of the entwined initials suggests the handkerchief was made in the 1870s or 1880s. The lettering style is similar to that seen on Barnum's personal stationery during the years he was living in Waldemere, his third home in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The handkerchief has a finely hem-stitched border, 7/8" wide, which provides an elegant finish to the edge. The overall size is 20 3/8" x 20 3/8". Before paper facial tissues (like Kleenex brand) came into use, people carried fabric handkerchiefs, which could be made of cotton, linen of varying fineness, or silk. In addition to being functional, handkerchiefs were also status indicator accessories, since the quality of the material and stitching revealed what a person could afford to purchase. Normally handkerchiefs were marked with the owner's initials to identify them in laundry. An elaborate, embroidered monogram was a step up from simple marking. Barnum's handkerchief is unusual in that the monogram is fairly large (1 3/4" high) and embroidered in three colors. There are also a couple of small red stitches near one corner; they may identify this among a number of similar handkerchiefs, as would be the custom for bedding sheets, shirts, undergarments and other laundered items, but in this case a numerical notation is not clear. The Barnum Museum also owns another of P. T. Barnum's handkerchiefs, which is made of cream color silk and features his signature embroidered in matching silk. Phineas Taylor Barnum was born on July 5, 1810 in Bethel, Connecticut. Over the course of his life he had many careers, although he is best known today for the Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. In the 1840s he achieved international fame through his American Museum in New York City, and by promoting and touring performers, notably "General Tom Thumb," and Swedish soprano Jenny Lind. His began his circus ventures when he was in his early 60s. The first of these, in the early 1870s, was called P. T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus. Barnum subsequently opened the New York Hippodrome with similar acts. In the 1880s, competition from other circuses increased. A merger between Barnum’s show and the Great London Show of Cooper, Bailey, and Hutchinson formed the circus called Barnum and London. Barnum's partnership with James A. Bailey in 1887 formed Barnum and Bailey, which continued to be managed by Bailey after Barnum's death in 1891. Barnum is buried in his adopted city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, in Mountain Grove Cemetery.
