Handbill: The Wonderful Wonders Lucia Zarate and Gen. Mite and Admiral Dot at Howard Hall for starting Monday, February 19, 1877

Handbill advertising The Wonderful Wonders Lucia Zarate and Gen. Mite along with Admiral Dot at Howard Hall for the week of Monday, February 19, 1877, On the right hand side of the bill is a man holding a top hat in hand, with a small face popping out of it. If it is Lucia Zarate or the other performers named on the handbill is unspecified. Lucia Zarate, Francis Joseph Flynn (General Mite), and Leopold S. Kahn (Admiral Dot) were all little people who performed with P.T. Barnum's circus ventures, as exhibiting those with dwarfism remained lucrative at the time. The handbill calls the three the most marvelous wonders on the face of the earth and notes their thirteen week hold over the city of Boston. The price of admission is listed, as are the times of their levees (performances). Frank Uffner is named as their proprietor and manager. Barnum is best known for his involvement with the circus that bore his name, but his circus ventures came about when he was in his 60s. The first show was called P.T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus. Railroads propelled the circus to success, making it easier to reach a number of locations, and the intake was significant. Barnum then opened the New York Hippodrome with similar acts. In the 1880s, he encountered competition from other circuses. A merger between Barnum's show and the Great London Show of Cooper, Bailey, and Hutchinson formed the Barnum and London Circus. Negotiations in 1887 formed the Barnum and Bailey circus. The name remained until 1919 when it became the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It came to an end in May 2017 when the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus ceased performances after 146 years.