Barnum & Bailey Circus | With a bonus glimpse of the Barnum & Bailey menagerie

Barnum & Bailey Circus

The Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. The Most Accomplished & Dauntless Lady Riders in a Spirited & Dashing Original Hurdle Race, with Free Rein Bravely & Fearlessly Taking the most Difficult Leaps & Dangerous Obstacles. Cincinnati & New York: The Strobridge Lith Co, ca. 1908 (no. 58)

Color lithograph poster (29 5/8 x 37 1/2 in.; 754 x 952 mm). Faint central vertical crease. Laid down on linen.

The poster contrasts the lady steeplechasers, riding sidesaddle in color silks (including long skirts), with a fine uncolored formal jugate portrait of P. T. Barnum and A. A. Bailey, bordered by roundel vignettes of the fiercest animals in their menagerie: bear, jaguar, tiger, lion, elephant, and rhinoceros.