Description:

P.T. Barnum writes concerning his recent travels to California and a recent lecture on the subject that included a sketch of the Chinese just as was preparing to come out of retirement to organize what would become his most remembered accomplishment: the circus

PHINEAS T. BARNUM (1810-1891) Autograph Letter Signed, "P. T. Barnum," 1 page, 5" x 8", Bridgeport, Connecticut, September 24, 1870, together with the original transmittal envelope addressed in his hand to "Isaac B. Noxon, Sing Sing, N.Y." Expected folds, several minor contemporary ink smudges, else fine.

"Yours recd I have said 'No' to everybody & would say yes to you sooner, than to anybody else. I have given a lecture here in the rough[?] on my late visit to Salt Lake city - Frisco - Geysers Yosemite &c including incidents & a sketch of the Chinese &c &c. If I in cooler weather like it into shape & get in fun enough to suit me I might go as far as Sing Sing but I can't say positively about it for a month. I move back to New York 1st Nov."

Barnum had been in retirement for nearly four years, and by this point was extremely bored and eager to return to his original calling. Part of his western trip was intended to collect new curiosities, which included the noted dwarf, Admiral Dot, who would travel with Barnum in his inaugural season of his circus, that would eventually be known as "The Greatest Show on Earth," in April 1871.

Like many westerners, Barnum was fascinated by exoticism of East Asia. Twenty years before he had established Barnum's Chinese Museum in New York in which he exhibited "the unparalleled wonder, the most extraordinary curiosity yet—a real Chinese beauty, with FEET 2 1/2 inches long," and accompanied by her "Living Chinese Family." Barnum engaged the family for six years, exhibiting them throughout the country Another exhibit at Barnum's Chinese Museum were the "Siamese Twins" Cheng and Eng Bunker—highlighting western ignorance of East Asian cultures. His travelling circus, which he inaugurated in the spring of 1871, featured "Chinese" amusements including a "Chinese Ballet Divertissement" (Advertisement, New York Herald, April 21, 1850; Saxon, P.T. Barnum: The Legend and the Man, 1995, 99; Tchen, New York Before Chinatown 2001, 141-142; Advertisement, Springfield Republican, Illinois, May 6, 1876, 1).

The recipient, Isaac B. Noxon, was a longtime banker in Sing Sing and in his spare time booked lecturers to appear in the tiny New York village. In 1896 Noxon himself became a news sensation for a brief time, when mysteriously disappeared from town to escape a financial embarrassment—travelling to Haiti and Venezuela before returning to New York to make amends ("Isaac B. Noxon in this City," The New York Times, May 7, 1896, 12).

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