Letter: To R. B. Leacey from P.T. Barnum, September 6, 1886

Letter to R. B. Leacey from P.T. Barnum, September 6, 1886 In this letter to the President of the Fairfield County Historical Society of Bridgeport, Barnum presents the society with the stuffed and mounted baby Bridgeport (now in the Barnum Museum.) The elephant was born at the winter quarters in Bridgeport on February 2, 1883 and died April 12, 1886, having travelled about 50,000 miles with the Greatest Show on Earth. The letter says that she will be held for safe keeping in the Barnum Museum at Tufts, near Boston, where it will always be subject to the order of the Fairfield County Historical Society. P.T. Barnum wrote a large number of letters in his time, and as a public figure, received many in return. These manuscripts offer insight into his personal life via correspondence with friends and family, his business interests including the American Museum and the circus, and his personality. The various correspondents demonstrate how vast his social circle was, and the space he occupied as a public figure during his own lifetime.