Early 1900's Street Parade

1900. Very good +. Gelatin silver print mounted on board, 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (190 x 241 mm) from the Roland Butler Collection, Press Agent, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (1930s-1960s) Roland Butler Collection hand stamp on verso. "One of the factors that made circus so popular was that fairground entertainers travelled to their audiences. From the late 18th century, circuses toured to even the smallest towns and in the 19th century the development of the railways enabled circuses to travel further. By the 1870's huge circuses were touring across Europe and America with two or three trainloads of equipment.
Early touring circuses were often small operations, manned entirely by a single family. The company might include a couple of acrobats, a clown who performed a comic equestrian act, a tightrope walker, and as many horses as could be afforded - perhaps two trained to perform and two used to pull the cart from town to town. A short show would be repeated several times a day from noon until night, with an audience stood watching from behind a wooden barrier. . . Larger circuses would often announce their arrival in town with a circus parade. The parade was a natural advertisement for the circus and would attract huge crowds. Barnum and Bailey's Circus parade along the Prince of Wales Road in Norwich in 1899 included a menagerie, a military band, 70 horses and a collection of 'living human curiosities'."
"The story of circus" © Victoria and Albert Museum.