Greetings, Everyone! This week I am happy to share the 15th installment in our blog series that explores P. T. Barnum’s letters written from France when he was in his mid-thirties, just at the time fame and fortune found him.

Last week’s blog drew from P. T. Barnum’s letters in the 1845 copybook that discuss the plays created for Gen. Tom Thumb, and these gave us some insights into his stage routines while on tour in France. 

Greetings, Everyone! I hope you are comfortably busy (or are “busy relaxing”) now we’ve swung into July.

P.T. Barnum’s famous protegee Charles Stratton, known to the world as Gen. Tom Thumb, was quite a young child when he was first introduced to European audiences in the mid-1840s.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! I wish you all an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend—though this is a very different Fourth from all others in our history

Have you ever tried to envision a visit to Barnum’s American Museum?  I find it is a feat of the imagination to reconcile exterior pictures of the museum with the sheer quantity and variety of artifacts

Greetings, Everyone! Now that we are officially in the summer season, many of you have probably thought back to memorable trips and vacations in past years when we could safely travel and enjoy whatever leisure activities we wished.

In honor of Father’s Day on June 21st, this week’s exploration of P. T. Barnum’s letters from France will focus on several that enlighten us about his role as a father of daughters, and as a father-figure to his protégé Charles Stratton, better known to the world as “Gen. Tom Thumb.”

A very special, thankful, and Happy Father’s Day to all Dads out there!