 Barre, Vermont - September 23, 2011A jumbo-sized discovery was made during demolition of a building in downtown Barre."And what they did was when they were going to tear the building down, they cut a hole to see if they could find asbestos or any harmful materials," said Jackie Caulder, the curator of the Vermont Historical Society.But instead, they found a 111-year-old circus poster glued to the wood underneath some siding. The poster was an advertisement for the 1890 Forepaugh Circus, a rival of Barnum."It looks pretty vibrant now but imagine in 1890 what it would have looked like when you were walking down the street," Caulder said.The Vermont Historical Society bought the poster from a demolition worker for $4,000 and says it's possibly worth upwards of $40,000. But to curator Jackie Caulder, a piece of local history is priceless."It's very rare though," she said. "We think we got a good bargain. But more than that it's a very rare piece of Barre history that's been preserved."Posters were used to advertise the theme of the show. This one was of the famous Battle of Little Bighorn. Tens of thousands of people would come from far and wide to see the show."It was a spectacle. You can imagine at that time… no TV, no radio. But when the circus came to town everything closed down," Caulder said.The average cost of a ticket was about 75 cents, but the cost to run just one Forepaugh Circus was about $250,000.The poster will be on display at the Vermont Historical Society.  |
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Historical Circus Posters #1 (From Don Covington)
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7 comments:
This is obviously not the entire poster. Are we 100% sure that it is from Forepaugh? Is there a title visible somewhere? My guess would have been one of the Wild West shows, possibly Buffalo Bill.
Come on Dick Flint, jump in on this. You to Whitey!
Seems that there was a similar discovery a few years ago...also in Vermont.
Looks lik the venerable Shelburne (VT)Museum got one upped on this.
I don't recognize this image, but Forepaugh did have a "Wild West" as part of the show.
Yes, there have been several discoveries of old daubs in recent years.
I have seen some old daubs, but not here lately. Saw a Hagenbeck-Wallace daub when I was with the Cristiani advance, and once on Beatty-Cole we found an old James Patterson daub- for either his Gollmar or his Gentry show- can't recall which now.
Several times in old empties I would find faded paper on the floor which had fallen from the windows long ago.
Not related to old posters but once Kitzman and I were in an old empty in Louisiana and the floor gave way with me- very scary but I only fell a couple of feet to the dirt below and was able to climb out before the critters got me.
The Strawbridge poster exhibit at the Ringling Museum is phenomenal. Every one displayed so eloquently. I went to the opening, but so busy with everyone walking around. I want to go back and take the time to look at them individually. Howard Tibbal brought together a really historic event. Don't miss it!! Jackie LeClaire
Forepaugh featured a wild west for 1888-90 that included the Custer massacre. In fact, the wild west part of the title was over or ahead of that of the circus. The featured performer in 1888-89 was sharpshooter Dr. W.F. Carver and for 1890 he was replaced by Capt. A.H. Bogardus and his three sons. This is very likely Forepaugh but I trust the historical society has some other supporting evidence not reported in the news story.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
This is Forepaugh, alright. I have this poster in a one sheet. Mine has this same image of Custer getting plugged with images of Adam Sr. and Jr. on a pennant in the upper left hand corner. Under their pictures are about a half dozen newspaper blurbs bragging about how fabulous the show was. It was printed by Central in Chicago. The Hertzberg collection now at the Witte Museum in San Antonio has or at least once had the same poster. Central did some beautiful work for Forepaugh in the late 1880s. Check out Howard Tibbals's Forepaugh posters on the Ringling Museum website to see other examples of Central's work. It's surprising how many Forepaugh Central posters have survived. There must be close to 20 that have survived. I have two or three others, Baraboo has about five, and Princeton has one or two.
The best discovery of ancient daubs was the one found in Shelbourne, Vermont of the Forepaugh show in, I believe, 1883. We ran it on the cover of the Bandwagon about 1990. FP
What about the English invent football championship?
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