Leather-bound contract between Barnum & Bailey and C. H. Seeley, dated November 15, 1887. The contract gives Seeley permission to publish and distribute material for the 1888 circus season. The contract is typed on P. T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth letterhead, which includes the notation that their Permanent Winter Office is located at Madison Square Garden. The contract is signed in Barnum's hand, "Barnum & Bailey, P. T. Barnum." It is uncertain if C. H. Seeley was related in some way to P. T. Barnum, but that might be so, since Barnum's daughter Pauline married into the Seeley family, who were also from Bethel, Connecticut, Barnum's birthplace. The paper is adhered to a leather book cover with a pebbled texture and a gold embossed title, "Souvenir Contract with P. T. Barnum & Co. 1888." The perimeter of the leather cover is well worn. Inside, the glue has darkened the paper in the center, and caused it to become fragile, so that the contract is now torn and separated in the center, making it difficult to discern some of the words. At the left end of the break, the first word is no longer legible but appears to have been seven letters in length. The word "courier" might thus be correct, and would make sense with the remaining part of the sentence "[courier] with the "Barnum & London United Shows" during . . ." A "C. H. Seeley" is listed in City Directories for Syracuse, N.Y. in 1868 and in Lockport, N. Y. in 1874 and 1876, locations with access to railroads that Barnum's circus would likely have utilized. Seeley's occupation in the 1870s is listed as "clerk." Barnum had an extensive network of business contacts in upstate New York but whether this C. H. Seeley was the person named in this contract is unknown, nor is his location at the time period of the contract, in the late 1880s, known. Barnum is best known today for the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth, but his circus ventures did not come about until he was in his early 60s. His first circus, 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 & Bailey, which continued to be managed by Bailey after Barnum's death in 1891. After Bailey's death in 1906, the Ringling Brothers bought Barnum & Bailey and operated it separately from their own circus. In 1919 the two were combined to form Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. This circus gave its final performance on May 21, 2017.
