Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Circus Prints and Ephemera, 1846-1990s, bulk 1890-1960

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Summary

Creators:
Last, Jay T.
Abstract:
The Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Circus Prints and Ephemera contains more than 850 printed items that relate to circuses in the United States from the 1846 to the 1990s. The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials, business records, and illustrations produced for or pertaining to circuses, their tours and shows, staff and performers, acts and exhibits, and animals.
Extent:
approximately 870 items
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

The Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Circus Prints and Ephemera contains more than 850 printed items that relate to circuses in the United States from the 1846 to the 1990s. The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials, business records, and illustrations produced for or pertaining to circuses, their tours and shows, staff and performers, acts and exhibits, and animals.

Materials are arranged in three series: small-size prints and ephemera (11 x 14 inches or less); large-size prints and ephemera (more than 11 x 14 inches); and broadsides and handbills. The small-size items are described broadly at the series level; large-size items are fully inventoried and all printers, artists, and publishers are indexed by name; and the broadsides and handbills contain item-level entries that include the circus name, date, printer (when identified), and show location (when applicable).

The collection has 220 large-size items comprised mainly of lithographic posters containing brightly colored images of featured circus acts, performers, and animals that were typically posted outdoors in advance of the circus coming to town.

Small-size items in the collection number more than 500 and are comprised mainly of advertising and promotion ephemera and business documents such as trade cards, programs and souvenir books, route cards, envelopes, tickets, songsters, and printed billheads and letterheads.

The 130 broadsides, handbills, and related advertisements consist primarily of long, narrow broadsides printed on newspaper paper in black ink using letterpress type that advertised upcoming circus shows and were intended to be distributed by hand, left in stacks in public places, or posted on walls, fences, or in windows in advance of the circus’s arrival in a town.

This collection provides a resource for studying the history of the American circus and its impact on popular entertainment and advertising in the 19th and 20th centuries. As graphic materials, the items offer evidence of the development of printmaking techniques and trends, and of the artists, engraves, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creation of these prints.

Acquisition information:
This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, which was donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the Circus Prints and Ephemera were transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2013 .
Arrangement:

Items are arranged in the following three series:

  • Series I. Circus Prints and Ephemera (small size)
  • Series II. Circus Prints and Ephemera (large size)
  • Series III. Circus Broadsides and Handbills

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Note:

Finding aid last updated on February 19, 2020.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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