Last week’s blog, “Read & Reflect,” mainly focused on P. T. Barnum’s October 25, 1845 letter to his wife Charity at home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, while he was traveling in Europe. 

Over the past few months of reading Barnum’s letters in his 1845-1846 copybook, I have been surprised to find relatively few to Charity, his wife. 

Since we are well into “apple season” here in New England (as well as in neighboring New York State, the country’s second biggest apple-producer), the title phrase of this week’s blog—plucked from a P. T. Barnum letter—seemed ripe for picking. 

Some More Wonderful News! “The Barnum Museum remains unyieldingly determined to revitalize from its series of natural disasters – and now we remain vigilant and steadfast as we navigate Covid-19. 

One of the things I’ve been doing as I read Barnum’s letters from France in his 1845-1846 copybook is to keep an eye out for clues and references to artifacts that are now in the Barnum Museum’s collection.

All Things Barnum! It is a joy to send you these fascinating weekly blogs about Mr. Barnum’s continental adventures, and I assure you, there are many, many more to come! 

In recent blogs we’ve gotten to know a couple of the “personalities” in Barnum’s letters, Fordyce Hitchcock and Emile Guillaudeu. And by now “Monsieur Pinte” is also a name familiar to readers of this series.

Advertisements for Barnum’s American Museum always trumpet the many thousands of “curiosities” that visitors could see once they had paid to enter, like a new world laid before them. 

Greetings, everyone! Here in Connecticut we are feeling a hint of Fall in the air, closing out an unusually hot summer.