Dates

• Existence: 5 July 1810 - 7 April 1891

Biography

Phineas Taylor Barnum was born on 5 July 1810 in Bethel, Connecticut. Both his father and maternal grandfather held a wide range of occupations and businesses, which influenced Barnum’s entrepreneurial predisposition.

Barnum tried his hand at many different businesses over his lifetime. By the time he was twenty five, he had already owned a general store, a book auctioning trade and the Herald of Freedom newspaper.

In 1934, he moved to New York City and a year later he became a showman, travelling with a variety troupe called ‘Barnum's Grand Scientific and Musical Theatre’. In 1841 Barnum acquired Scudder's American Museum on the corner of Broadway, Park Row, and Ann Street, which he turned into the famous Barnum’s American Museum. The Museum exhibited anything of popular interest at the time from giants and dwarves, to jugglers, magicians and living and stuffed animals. Some of Barnum’s most famous exhibits were the Feejee Mermaid, Tom Thumb, Chang and Eng, Jenny Lind and Joice Heth. In 1844 Barnum toured Tom Thumb around Europe for about a year. The pair became an instant success and were invited to perform in front of European royalty including Queen Victoria and the Tsar of Russia. Barnum also took advantage of the trip to acquire more exhibits including mechanical marvels and other relics for his museum. The American Museum was damaged by fire in three occasions before it’s final closure in 1865.

In c1850, Barnum built New York City's largest and most modern theatre, the ‘Moral Lecture Room’ in an attempt to clean the reputation of theatre entertainment and started the nation's first theatrical matinées to encourage family attendance.

In 1853, going back to his roots, he once again started a newspaper, which he called the Pictorial Weekly Newspaper Illustrated News.

Barnum entered into the circus business in the 1870s when he partnered up with William Cameron Coup. They established a travelling circus, menagerie and freakshow, which changed name on several occasions from ‘P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome’ to ‘P. T. Barnum's Travelling World's Fair, Great Roman Hippodrome and Greatest Show on Earth’, and ‘P. T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth, And The Great London Circus, Sanger's Royal British Menagerie and The Grand International Allied Shows United’. In 1881 the circus merged with James Bailey and James L. Hutchinson and soon was known as ‘Barnum & Bailey's’. The spectacle they travelled was of such mammoth proportions that they started to use three rings they were also one of the first circuses to move by train and probably the first one to own his own train.

Barnum and Bailey split up in 1885, but they reunited in 1888 with the ‘Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth’ and later ‘Barnum & Bailey Circus’ which toured the world.

During his lifetime, Barnum wrote several books, including his autobiography in 1855, The Humbugs of the World ten years later, Struggles and Triumphs in 1869 and The Art of Money-Getting in 1880.

Barnum also had a political career, he served two terms in the Connecticut legislature in 1865 and was elected Mayor of Bridgeport in 1875. Barnum died on 7 April 1891 aged 81 years old.

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