Handbill promoting "The Annex" to P. T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth, managed by the Bunnell Brothers. The date of the handbill is believed to be 1877, since it was that year the Bunnell Brothers managed this addition to Barnum's show. The long narrow paper is printed on both sides, and includes many bold headlines and several illustrations, including some that are racist, though not have been unusual in that time period. In the upper portion there is an illustations of a minstrel show on stage, advertised under the heading "Variety and Magic." Among the various attractions listed are Dick Sands, a champion clog dancer; Charles Young, a professional ventriloquist; Herr Schlam the great German wizard, the California Giantess, the Mammoth Woman of the World, described as a "living mountain of flesh" weighing 728 pounds; the Wonderful Wild People from Africa, illustrated in a cage and identified as Hiwanata, Yeppo, and Zenopia; Zoe Melike, a Circassian Beauty; Miss Ettie Rogers, an albino woman; and the $100,000 Reice Family of German Dwarfs. Admission is stated as 25 cents. No printer is named. According to the donor, this item was saved by a young man who attended the circus in the Bridgeport, Connecticut, area. Barnum is best known for his involvement with the circus that still bears his name, but his circus ventures came about in the early 1870s 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 far more people, 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 the Great London Show of Cooper, Bailey, and Hutchinson formed the Barnum and London Circus. Negotiations in 1887 formed the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. After Barnum's death in 1891, Bailey contineud to operate the circus. After his death in 1906, Ringling Brothers bought the business and operated it separately from their own for over ten years. The name remained until 1919 when the two circuses were combined to become Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. It came to an end in May 2017 when the circus ceased performances after 146 years.
