Description:

P.T. Barnum, writing on marvelous promotional letterhead, encourages his manager to break out and establish a 'museum' in Cincinnati

PHINEAS T. BARNUM (1810-1891) Autograph Letter Signed, "P. T. Barnum," 1 page, 8.25" x 10.75" promotional letterhead for his museum on Park Row, New York, February 27, 1861 to William Shires encouraging him to open a similar museum in Cincinnati. Affixed to a mid to late blind-embossed 19th century album page, one margin slightly rough, light soiling, usual folds, else very good condition. Offered together with a scarce Broadside, BARNUM'S GREAT EXHIBITION OF LIVING WONDERS...AZTEC CHILDREN — AT TWEEDLE HALL DAY AND NIGHT, for a short time only COMMENCING ON MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1861. 6" x 8", [New York, 1861]. Similarly affixed to a mid to late 19th century album page, light soiling and trimmed at top and bottom not affecting text, else very good.

Barnum writes in full: " I really hope you will succeed in getting up a Museum in Cincinnatti [sic]. If you do so I shall be glad to keep up an interchange of curiosities, for, during the time you were with me I found you competent, correct, energetic & in my opinion, just the man to get up and manage a Museum with great success in Cincinatti [sic]. I trust you will go ahead & get one up."

William Shires, the owner of the eponymous Shire's Garden (located at the corner of Third and Vines streets in Cincinnati) from 1842 until it, too, burned down in 1848. " The garden occupied an entire block. It was planted with shade trees, and beautified with flower beds. Interspersed through it, were ice cream booths and places of refreshment. In the centre, stood a pretty frame theatre which was ably managed, with a good stock company supporting stars during the regular season. In the summer months, day as well as night performances were given by the stock company. Here, is marked, the first introduction of matinées in this country," (Stevens Owens, Memories of the Professional and Social Life of John E. Owens). Shires later took on the management of the National Theatre and Pike's Opera House in Cincinnati, and until January 1861, Shires managed Barnum's " Great Exhibition of Living Wonders." We could find no record of Shires managing a museum such as the one planned in the present letter.

The " AZTEC CHILDREN," were actually Maximo and Bartola, a microcephalic brother and sister team who first appeared on the museum circuit in 1849, around the same time as the famous " Wild Man of Borneo," attracting serious scientific interest for some time. Small and childlike, they had the mental age of two-year olds, and were exhibited by Barnum for many years, enjoying audiences with President Millard Fillmore and Queen Victoria, together with most of the crown heads of Europe. The pair of 'pinheads,' as they were known at the time, were originally from Mexico and were sold off by their parents to a Spanish trader who promised to bring them to the United States to be 'cured of their imbecility.' The Spaniard sold them to a man named Morris, who managed them in the United States before they joined Barnum's family of curiosities. As the century wore on, the pair declined in popularity as science moved on to more legitimate 'discoveries.' Their last known appearance was on the Barnum & Bailey circuit in 1901.

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