Below is a complete list of blog posts from the 75-part series Barnum’s Letters from Abroad. This Table of Contents also provides hyperlinks and lists the topics covered in each post. This list is also available to download in .PDF format.
| Publication Date | Post Number | Title | Topics |
| 4/11/2020 | PTB Letters (#1) | A Bit of France in Bridgeport | Bridgeport as Barnum’s adopted hometown; influence of French provincial towns; planning development of Bridgeport to ensure quality of life for all; French Public Walks and parks; parks as “lungs” of cities; improving towns; letters to NY Atlas |
| 4/17/2020 | PTB Letters (#2) | Piling Up the Tin! | Tours and Angers, France; travel by stagecoach; tour arrangements for Gen. Tom Thumb; financial success; instructions to S. Stratton; letters to Mr. Risley, Mr. Brewster. |
| 4/24/2020 | PTB Letters (#3) | The General’s Clothes and Carriage | Poitiers, Niort, and LaRochelle, France; Gen. Tom Thumb’s costumes; character portrayals; theatrical agents; miniature coach and ponies; promotion/advertising; woodcuts (for printing); instructions to S. Stratton |
| 5/1/2020 | PTB Letters (#4) | Negotiating Tactics | Bordeaux and Poitiers, France; French taxes and fees; Barnum as agent; profit/loss calculations; French vehicles; Charles Stratton defined as an actor not a “natural curiosity”; character portrayals; instructions to S. Stratton; letters to Mon. Huet, Mon. Bezout |
| 5/8/2020 | PTB Letters (#5) | A “Touch of Yankee” Solves a Problem | Bordeaux and Vincennes, France; French taxes and fees; history of Vincennes and Bordeaux; French coins; profit/Loss calculations; request from Spanish Consul; letters to Mon. Huet, Moses Kimball, Mr. Dignan |
| 5/15/2020 | PTB Letters (#6) | An Awful Great Fire in NY | Peale’s Museum (NYC); Peale’s Museum (Phila.); catastrophic fire in NYC; resignation to likelihood of eventual fire at Amer. Museum |
| 5/22/2020 | PTB Letters (#7) | Manufactured Puffs and Dissolving Views | Bordeaux, France; management of American Museum; Dissolving Views; optical inventions; promotion/advertising; Royal Adelaide Gallery; Napoleon’s re-interment funeral; panoramas; Robert-Houdin (magician -inventor); Mr. Lambert (panorama painter); M. Darche music store; letters to F. Hitchcock, Mon. Huet, Mr. West (NY Atlas); Messrs. Molteni & Co |
| 5/29/2020 | PTB Letters (#8) | The Beginnings of Iranistan | Bordeaux, France; family matters; homesickness; overseas mail; financial success; ideas for future home/garden; small sketch; Iranistan in Bridgeport, Conn.; water/plumbing; F. Olmsted; daguerreotypes; letters to Charity (wife) and daughters |
| 6/5/2020 | PTB Letters (#9) | Barnum on Humbugging & Puffing | Toulouse, France; promotion/advertising; hoaxes v. humbugs; opinion of the public/audiences; letter to C. D. Stuart |
| 6/12/2020 | PTB Letters (#10) | A Mountain of Worries | Family matters; health/illness; homesickness; travel by stagecoach; plan to buy land in Bridgeport; daughter’s request to attend masquerade ball; financial worries; treaties (contracts); letters to Charity (wife) and daughter, Messrs. Roux & Co. |
| 6/19/2020 | PTB Letters (#11) | Plenty of Fun in “Bridgepork” | Family matters; health/illness; fears death of daughter; education of daughters; gifts; toys, teasing and fun times; Barnum as father figure to Charles Stratton (Gen. Thumb); silly sketches by Charles Stratton; oil portrait of Barnum daughters. |
| 6/26/2020 | PTB Letters (#12) | They Stared with All the Eyes They Had | Inside the American Museum; proposed museum guidebook; extant guidebooks; Sights and Wonders booklet; promotion/advertising; letters to F. Hitchcock, C.D. Stuart |
| 7/3/2020 | PTB Letters (#13) | A New Play for the General | Toulouse, France; Gen. Tom Thumb’s performances; Le Petit Poucet (play); Le Geant (play); new play to be written; Albert R. Smith (author/playwright); burlesque; pantomime; coachman and footman as actors; humorous ways to introduce Tom Thumb on stage; letters to C. D. Stuart; A. R. Smith; Mon. Roux |
| 7/10/2020 | PTB Letters (#14) | Arranging All the Affairs | Béziers, France; provincial Mayors; theatre managers; entertainment taxes; theatrical rate v. natural curiosities; financial calculations; halls and exhibition rooms; advertising/promotion; handbills; renting chairs, piano; support occupations: bill posters; gas lighters, porters; display of lithographs; display of Tom Thumb’s clothing; travel by stagecoach; letters to S. Stratton, Prof. Pinte |
| 7/17/2020 | PTB Letters (#15) | A Capital Dodge for Us | Nimes, France; plans for American Museum (or NYC) guidebook; early 19th c. travel guides in America; Letter to F. Hitchcock |
| 7/24/2020 | PTB Letters (#16) | Well Dressed Dinners | Astor House, NYC; Lower Manhattan and Broadway; menus in the NYPL collection; Lyon sausage (donkey meat); poking fun at the Strattons; unfamiliar foods in Belgium and France; dining customs in France; hotels; cleanliness and filth; Ladies’ Ordinary as safe havens in NYC and Boston; letter to NY Atlas |
| 7/31/2020 | PTB Letters (#17) | Story Updates, and a Daughter’s Education | Bordeaux, France; ornamental pastry; follow up to A Mountain of Worries blog post; family matters; overseas mail; health/illness; choosing boarding school for Caroline; female education in early 19th century; French language; E. Guillaudeu; letters to A. Taylor; F. Hitchcock, Charity (wife) |
| 8/7/2020 | PTB Letters (#18) | A Most Determined Devotion to Business | Marseille, France; travel by stagecoach; times/distances between French towns; financial worries; planning Tom Thumb’s performances; theatre managers; Le Geant (play), and Le Petit Poucet (play); profit/loss calculations; French taxes and fees; treaties (contracts); letters to Mon. Roux, unnamed man in Lyon |
| 8/21/2020 | PTB Letters (#19) | Novelties and Schemes | Marseille, France; financial worries; fear of daughter dying; success and management of American Museum; petrified human found in cave; trumpeters automaton; animal (orangutan); Dissolving Views; Napoleon panaorma; laughing gas; letters to F. Hitchcock, Prof. Swift |
| 8/28/2020 | PTB Letters (#20) | Searching for Monsieur Guillaudeu | Mon. Emile Guillaudeu (Amer. Museum’s naturalist); taxidermy supplies; improvements to Amer. Museum; staff salaries; passport applications; physical descriptions of Barnum, Stratton, Guillaudeu, others; meeting royalty; French language; Prof. Swift; Dissolving Views; letters to E. Guillaudeu, F. Hitchcock, A. Taylor |
| 9/4/2020 | PTB Letters (#21) | The Things Inside Case No. 8 | Paris, France; purchase of china, silver, precious items from estate of Russian Prince Tioufiakin; shipping crates; U.S. Customs; E. Guillaudeu; Royal Pavillion (Brighton, England); California gold ring; Jenny Lind concert ticket; coat of arms; letter to F. Hitchcock |
| 9/11/2020 | PTB Letters (#22) | My Success Has Been a Miracle | Financial aspirations; family money matters; Caroline (daughter); Alanson Taylor (uncle); Philo F. Barnum (half-brother); opinions of relatives; defining success; management of Amer. Museum; letters to Charity (wife), F. Hitchcock, Moses Kimball |
| 9/18/2020 | PTB Letters (#23) | Curiosities for the American Museum | Acquiring relics and antiquities in France; exchanging for N. Amer. animal and bird specimens; taxidermy; E. Guillaudeu; copies of masterpieces; Hyacinthe Chevalier (Guillaudeu nephew); Amer. Museum audiences; letters to Mr. Sherman; Prof. Pinte |
| 9/25/2020 | PTB Letters (#24) | Becoming a First Rate Showman | Lyon, France; Prof. Pinte (interpreter/aspiring showman); Barnum’s humor; Le Petit Poucet playbooks; French law/authority re: theatre; French post office; woodcuts (printing); programs; posting handbills; advertising/promotion; comp tickets; mermaid; Gen. Tom Thumb calling cards; petrified human; letters to Mr. Sherman, Prof. Pinte |
| 10/2/2020 | PTB Letters (#25) | Souvenir Medals, and a Snug Saloon to Draw and Read In | London, England; souvenir medals made by Allen & Moore; promotion/advertising; brand images for Gen. Tom Thumb; comparing France and England; success in Paris; hotel; miniature coach and ponies; Charles Baugniet (artist); health/illness; relationship with Charles Stratton; French theatre; vaudville; profit/loss calculations; letters to Allen & Moore, S. Stratton, Mon. Huet |
| 10/9/2020 | PTB Letters (#26) | A Tree Found, Tried, and Shook | Fear of Amer. Museum burning; purchase of museums (collections); Peale’s Museums (NYC and Baltimore); Mr. Seaman; E. Guillaudeu; S. Stratton; Moses Kimball; novelties in Europe; the value of work; business affairs; relationship with uncle; letters to F. Hitchcock, A. Taylor |
| 10/16/2020 | PTB Letters (#27) | Read & Reflect, Then Do As You Please | Family matters; wife Charity’s pregnancy; overseas mail; health/illness; friction re: Charity looking for property in Bridgeport; real estate values; uncertainty about buying in Connecticut; eldest daughter’s education; U.S. Customs/import duties; misstep re: Charity in NY Atlas story; concern for young daughter’s health; letter to Charity (wife) |
| 10/23/2020 | PTB Letters (#28) | News in a Postscript: My Present Ideas | Family matters; plan for building new home; sketch; Royal Pavilion (Brighton); taxes in Bridgeport; water quality; analogy to buying textiles; furniture and carpets for new home; Charity’s choice of property; financial worries; Peale’s Museum (Phila.); Oliver Taylor; relationship between F. Hitchcock and A. Taylor; letters to Charity (wife), F. Hitchcock |
| 10/30/2020 | PTB Letters (#29) | Pantomime Engagements for the Holidays | Marseille, and Paris, France; pantomime theatre; Christmas entertainment; comedy, music; Adelphi Theatre; Vaudeville Theatre Paris; planning Gen. Tom Thumb’s performances; shipping props for Le Petite Poucet (play); miniature coach and ponies; treaty (contract) with Mon. Roux; Hop o’ My Thumb (play); Albert R. Smith; letters to Mr. Webster, Mr. Burn, S. Stratton, Mr. Sherman |
| 11/6/2020 | PTB Letters (#30) | First-Rate Attractions for the American Museum | London, England, and Paris, France; Royal Polytechnic Institute; Adelaide Gallery; decision re: buying property in Bridgeport; French doctors; medical advice; management of Amer. Museum; salaries; promotion/advertising; shipment of novelties; Moses Kimball; Prof. Swift; E. Guillaudeu; Dissolving Views; physioscope; automatons; orangutan; letter to F. Hitchcock |
| 11/13/2020 | PTB Letters (#31) | “Illusions” at the American Museum | Prof. Swift; Dissolving Views; artists to paint new slides; panoramas and dioramas; optical equipment; promotion/advertising; Thos. Brettell (printer); H. and W. J. Harrington (dioramas); Amer. Museum building; porcelain and silver items purchased; U.S. Customs/ import duties; letters to C. D. Stuart, F. Hitchcock |
| 11/20/2020 | PTB Letters (#32) | The Laborer is Worthy of his Hire | Staff at the Amer. Museum; ticket-taker; bookkeeper; salaries and wages; Frances Clarkson; employee dispute; removing the bar from the American Museum; albino lady; admitting mistake; impoverished sister Cordelia; past purchase of Amer. Museum; letter to F. Olmsted |
| 11/27/2020 | PTB Letters (#33) | A Heart to Feel for Others More | Paris, France; family matters; advice about purchasing property; saving to buy furniture; Fordyce Hitchcock; Oliver Taylor; health/illness; health of daughter Helen; education of daughter Caroline; Cordelia Benedict (sister); Alanson Taylor (uncle); letters to Charity (wife), F. Hitchcock |
| 12/4/2020 | PTB Letters (#34) | Hard Feelings about “Soft Soap” | Friction between Barnum and Sherwood Stratton; Sherwood and Cynthia Stratton; advance work in London; Prof. Swift; Mr. Sherman; shortening tour in France; soft soap as deception; travel and boarding expenses; financial agreement with S. Stratton; dislike of advertising; letter to S. Stratton |
| 12/11//2020 | PTB Letters (#35) | Barnum and Catlin | Paris, and Bordeaux, France; George Catlin (artist); Catlin family; death of Clara Catlin; Native American people (Iowans and Ojibwa); King Louis-Philippe; proposal to show at Salle Vivienne; Lancashire Bell Ringers; profit/loss calculations; promotion on public streets; Egyptian Hall; letters to Mr. Brewster, G. Catlin |
| 12/18/2020 | PTB Letters (#36) | Trumpets, “Venus,” and a Young Man, Heading to America | Paris, France; London, England; finding work for M/M Collins’ son; sailing from London; food for voyage; lodgings in NYC; mechanical trumpets; automatons; Dissolving Views; Amer. Museum balcony; Americans’ aspirations/success; optical instruments; shipments; U.S. Customs/import duties; panorama contract; Messrs. Molteni; Anatomical Venus; letters to Mr. Collins, F. Hitchcock |
| 12/24/2020 | PTB Letters (#37) | My Mind is Occupied with Thoughts of Home | Homesickness; purchase of luxury items for future home; assistance to Cordelia (sister); humorous stories re: children; teasing Helen (daughter); education of Charles Stratton; French education of Caroline (daughter); boarding schools’ accomodations, curriculum, and discipline; Washington, DC; female teachers; Alanson Taylor; letters to Charity (wife), Cordelia (sister), Caroline (daughter) |
| 1/1/2021 | PTB Letters (#38) | Tell Me Plainly What You Think | Paris, France; exhibiting human curiosities; partially-twinned infants; scribbled sketch; contracts with twins’ parents; French doctors; salaries; expense calculations; E. Guillaudeu; Millie and Christine McKoy; Charles Stratton; Chang and Eng Bunker; Giacomo and Giovanni Battista Tocci; letters to Moses Kimball, F. Hitchcock |
| 1/15/2021 | PTB Letters (#39) | A Jolly Lot of Brother Showmen | Paris, France; showmen: Titus, Carter, Van Amburgh, Sands, Welch, Raymond, June, Angevine; lion-tamers; acquiring exotic animals; menageries; female equestrian Roux; equestrian Risley; Spillman’s coffee house (London); largest horse, dog; dancing ponies; boxer James “Deaf” Burke; ballerinas Elssler and Taglioni; shipments to Amer. Museum; letter to Editors of NY Atlas |
| 1/22/2021 | PTB Letters (#40) | Plans Good and Bad | Paris, and Lyon, France; exhibiting human curiosities; partially-twinned infants; deceptive letter to parents; Prof. Pinte (interpreter); halls and saloons; directions for mechanical trumpets; balcony of Amer. Museum; employing a boy; optical instrument; Prof. Swift; E. Guillaudeu; taxidermy; exchange of skins; statues for roof of Amer. Museum; letter to infants’ father, to F. Hitchcock |
| 1/29/2021 | PTB Letters (#41) | The Grand Agent of Yankee Showmen | Paris, and Nancy, France; London, England; planning Gen. Tom Thumb’s performances; Christmas pantomimes; engaging agent in London; Egyptian Hall; London theatres and laws; Princess, Adelphi, Drury Lane, Surry, Haymarket theatres; showmen Sands and Risley; miniature coach; life of a child actor; treaties (contracts); Le Petit Poucet (play); letters to Mr. Fillingham, A. Taylor |
| 2/5/2021 | PTB Letters (#42) | We Have Got Quite Territory Enough | British and American territory dispute; Oregon Country; Mexican-American War; Calhoun and Polk; political parties; Kansas-Nebraska Act; Bridgeport postmaster; assisting son of English friends; saddlemaking; challenge with French language; self-reflection on reading and writing; letter to P. F. Barnum |
| 2/12/2021 | PTB Letters (#43) | Kings and Queens and Talk of Many Things | Moses Kimball and politics; equestrian Charles Rogers; circus owner Gilbert Spalding; “John Bull” and “Brother Jonathan” (British and American characters); Herald of Freedom newspaper; political opinions; Oregon country; potential territory war with England; partnership with traveling showman (1837); letter to M. Kimball |
| 2/19/2021 | PTB Letters (#44) | The Old American is Bound to Do Wonders | King Louis-Philippe; Seaman; health/illness; Peale’s Museum (Phila. & Baltimore); Amer. Museum guidebook; Prof. Swift; Drummond light; Amer. Museum rooftop; statues for roof; dull season in NYC; risky investment; advice to Alanson Taylor (uncle); E. Guillaudeu; H. Chevalier (artist); Picture Gallery (NYC); copies of paintings; comfort food in England; letters to F. Hitchcock, A. Taylor |
| 2/26/2021 | PTB Letters (#45) | Pancakes & Short Cakes & Oysters | Family matters; loneliness; friction between PTB and wife; wife’s pregnancy; postponing return; favorite American foods; Caroline (daughter) at boarding school; physical effects of homesickness; French doctors; overseas mail; unidentified guest/friend of M/M Collins; letters to Charity (wife), Helen (daughter), F. Hitchcock, R. Fillingham |
| 3/5/2021 | PTB Letters (#46) | Last Letters from France | Boulogne, France; family matters; doubts re: choice of Bridgeport; advice to mother on purchase of house; property in Bethel; yellow store; architectural styles; Bridgeport postmaster; stern tone to Caroline; homesickness; Peale’s Museum (Baltimore); American v. English food; Irena T. Barnum (mother); letters to family including his wife, daughters, half-brother, sister, niece, mother. |
| 3/12/2021 | PTB Letters (#47) | Business is Dull as Dishwater | London, England; planning Gen. Tom Thumb’s performances; agent Sheffield; Van Amburgh & Titus; London theatres; souvenir medals; Gen. Tom Thumb souvenir booklet; apology to Albert R. Smith (playwright); handbills; woodcuts (for printing); Adelaide Gallery; financial worries; Mr. Lawson; gifts to M/M Collins; theft of shirts; Customs House; letters to unnamed, S. Sherwood, A. R. Smith |
| 3/26/2021 | PTB Letters (#48) | Bills and Boardmen | London, England; handbills and posters; promo by boardmen (sandwich-boards); bills on vans; woodcuts (printing); instructions to S. Sherwood; Surry Theatre; miniature coach and ponies; Smithfield Cattle Show; text for ads; promotional strategy; discount and comp tickets; Egyptian Hall; plans for northern England and Scotland; letters to Mr. Peel, Mr. Nash, Mr. Francis (printer) |
| 4/2/2021 | PTB Letters (#49) | I Never Wish to be a Millionaire | Purchase of Scudder’s Amer. Museum; Frances Clarkson (employee); views on money and happiness; views on engaging the public; humbugs v. hoaxes; “Old Barnaby”; longing to see family; crossing Atlantic in winter; wife’s pregnancy; book on childbirth without pain; Dr.Crawford W. Long; Universalist faith; taking caudle; letters to F. Olmsted, F. Hitchcock, M/M Henry Barnum |
| 4/9/2021 | PTB Letters (#50) | A Desire to Save the Souls of Men | Views on God, faith and religion; Universalist and Congregational churches; separation of church and state; character of Alanson Taylor; uncle’s use of money loaned to him; religious novelty for Amer. Museum; optical inventions; Royal Polytechnic Institute; Adelaide Gallery; promoting to clergy and Sunday schools; dull season in winter; letters to M/M Henry Barnum, F. Hitchcock |
| 4/16/2021 | PTB Letters (#51) | Extra Exertions in Dull Times | London, and Newcastle upon Tyne, England; comp tickets; winter season at the Amer. Museum; strategy used by French theatres; profits in London; novelties for Amer. Museum; model of Venice; Chinese Collection; acquiring Asian curiosities; Albert R. Smith; Charles Dickens; assisting son of English friends; concern for Charity (wife); letters to F. Hitchcock, Moses Kimball |
| 4/23/2021 | PTB Letters (#52) | A New Chapter for a New Year | Edinburgh, Scotland; anxiety re: Charity; death of sister-in-law; expectation to return in March; purchase of Peale’s Museum (NYC & Baltimore); Seaman; business relationship with uncle; orangutan; model of Venice; partially twinned infants; expenses re: novelties; Dissolving Views; mechanical trumpets; lawsuit brought by H. Fairchild; property insurance; letter to F. Hitchock. |
| 4/30/2021 | PTB Letters (#53) | An Array of Museums | Scotland; Chinese Collection in Phila. & London; catalogue of curiosities; Nathan Dunn; Peale’s Museum; bonds and mortgage securities; Hitchcock as dealmaker; judgment on lawsuit; return tour to UK; financial success; Mr. Sherman; novelties for museum in Baltimore; model of Venice; letters to Moses Kimball, W. Langdon, J. V. Beam, Mr. Tyler |
| 5/14/2021 | PTB Letters (#54) | Going It Like a Rush | Scotland; statues for rooftop; Anatomical Venus; backtrack on Picture Gallery; revisions to Gen. Tom Thumb booklet; proofs of Hop O’ My Thumb; confident investment; optical instruments; mechanical trumpets; Gypsy Girl automaton; flags and garden on rooftop; attractions for Baltimore Museum; advice to uncle re: business; letters to Mr. Brewster, Mon. Huet, Mr. Brettell, A. Taylor |
| 5/21/2021 | PTB Letters (#55) | How to Do Business in Baltimore | Dumferline, Scotland; apology for giving advice to uncle; improvements to Baltimore Museum building; local press; avoiding loss caused by dishonest employees; dislike of comp tickets; S. Stratton as manager of ticket sales at Amer. Museum; Albino Lady; Rembrandt Peale; Seawright (Peale’s partner); M. Kimball loan request; bar (no liquor); saving for nest egg; letter to A. Taylor |
| 5/28/2021 | PTB Letters (#56) | Do the Best You Can for Yourself | Fife, Scotland; purchase of Baltimore Museum; A. Taylor and F. Hitchcock relationship ; career advice to Hitchcock; mental health; assisting son of English friends; Philo F. Barnum; Dissolving Views; copies of paintings; dull season in NYC; Robt. Hales (“giant”); “fat children” in Scotland; opinions of George Catlin and of Chas. J. Rogers; letters to F. Hitchcock, Moses Kimball |
| 6/4/2021 | PTB Letters (#57) | The Secret has Cost Me Much Trouble | Fife, Scotland; creating Happy Family exhibit at Amer. Museum; John Austin (English inventor of Happy Family); E. Guillaudeu; advice about monkeys; preserving secrets of exhibit; Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain; Henry Mayhew; care and cleanliness of animals; London Labour and the London Poor; letter to F. Hitchcock |
| 6/11/2021 | PTB Letters (#58) | A Good Education is Better than Riches | Dundee, Scotland; boarding school in Washington, DC; French language; homesickness; Philo F. Barnum family; female education; daughter’s wish to see Congress; silence re: childbirth; papier maché furniture; anecdotes re: Charles Stratton (Gen. Tom Thumb); true age of Charles; Hop O’ My Thumb playbook; Egyptian Hall; letters to Caroline (daughter), Charity (wife) |
| 6/18/2021 | PTB Letters (#59) | A Great Blessing to the Poor | Dundee and Glasgow, Scotland; Corn Laws (England); Sir Robert Peel; Lord John Russell; famine in Ireland and Scotland; Parliament and Prime Ministers; Free Trade; “fat children” and mother; poverty; Mysterious Lady trick; instructions re: Happy Family exhibit; advertising; printing handbills; John Austin (originator of Happy Fam.); monkey illustration; letters to Charity (wife), Moses Kimball |
| 6/25/2021 | PTB Letters (#60) | Mademoiselle Venus | Paris, France; Anatomical Venus description; Messrs. Draper & Co.; strategy for exhibiting; exhibit location options; moral exhibitions; viewing hours for women; shipping risks; U.S. Customs; Dr. Tuttle (physician); profit calculation; wax workshops in Paris and Florence; Felice Fontana and Clemente Susini (wax sculptors); letters to Moses Kimball, F. Hitchcock, Mon. Huet |
| 7/2/2021 | PTB Letters (#61) | Averting a Lawsuit | Accident in Airdrie, Scotland, hall; injuries; financial losses on tour of Scotland; Glasgow law firm Moncrieff, Paterson, Fores & Barr; sending money to compensate victims; S. Stratton; John Davidson (Chief Magistrate); misrepresentation by the hall’s proprietor; liability insurance; letters to Mr. Sheffield (tour promoter), J. Davidson, F. Hitchcock |
| 7/9/2021 | PTB Letters (#62) | A Great Country for Wealth and Grandeur | Scotland and England; problem getting proofs of new play; Thos. Brettell (printer); Albert R. Smith; levees at Egyptian Hall; Prof. Swift and wife; text for newspaper ads in London; fears re: Charity’s confinement; despair re: failing to be with wife; family matters; Amer. and English foods; accident in Airdrie; letters to T. Brettell, A. Smith, Mr. Collins, F. Hitchcock, Mrs. H. Barnum, Mr. Collins |
| 7/16/2021 | PTB Letters (#63) | The Lion, the Mummy, and the Museum | London, England; business relationship with Alanson Taylor; uncle’s misuse of loaned money; Baltimore Museum; hiring employees for new museum; Peale’s Museum (NYC); entertainment competitors; offering afternoon performances; Jenny Lind; Miss Reynolds (singer/actress); guano-mummified man from Ichaboe Island; investment in half a lion; Lewis Titus; letter to F. Hitchcock |
| 7/23/2021 | PTB Letters (#64) | Talented and Poetical Puffing | Trouble with employees at Amer. Museum; E. Guillaudeu; taxidermy of miniature pony; Queen Victoria and Gen. Tom Thumb; Prof. Swift; optical inventions; Royal Polytechnic Institute; Mrs. Ronabeck (victim of abuse?); Highlander costumes for “fat children”; sending the “Stuart” family to U.S.; Venice model; plaster casts from Stirling Castle; letter to F. Hitchcock |
| 7/30/2021 | PTB Letters (#65) | The Play is a Tremendous Hit! | London, England; arranging performances for Gen. Tom Thumb; advertisement; Robt. and Mary Anne Keeley (actors); Surrey Theatre; Lyceum Theatre; Gen. Tom Thumb in Cambridge and Oxford; David Prince Miller; “fat children”: Highlander costumes, banner; teaching mesmeric trick; S. Stratton; Oregon territory dispute (U.K. and U.S.); letters to Moses Kimball, F. Hitchcock, D. P. Miller |
| 8/6/2021 | PTB Letters (#66) | My Character and Peculiarities So Correctly Portrayed | Arbroath, Scotland; Anatomical Venus; Guy Ainé (wax modelmaker); payment, packing, and shipping arrangements; Messrs. Draper; phrenology; character estimates of Barnum and Charles Stratton; Messrs. Fowler (NY phrenologists); Mr. Boyd (Aberdeen phrenologist); Hop O’ My Thumb (play); anecdote re: Gen. Tom Thumb; letters to Mon. Huet, T. Brettell, A. R. Smith |
| 8/13/2021 | PTB Letters (#67) | Names and Illusions | Aberdeen, Scotland; contract for “fat children”; true identities of”Stuart” brothers (“fat children”); David Prince Miller (former showman); country fairs; John Henry Anderson (rival to Miller); Mr. Sheffield (agent); Mon. Phillippe (magician Jacques Noel Talon) visits U.S.; Robert-Houdin (magician-inventor); letters to F. Hitchcock, T. Sheffield, R. Fillingham |
| 8/20/2021 | PTB Letters (#68) | Imitators and Followers Will Get Poor Gleanings | Aberdeen, Scotland; copies of paintings in French collections; Mr. Allen (artist); Mon. Jeanne (sculptor); statues for Amer. Museum; Sherman’s failure to pay debts; bilked by agent in France; “Spanish Dwarf” and “English Tom Thumb”; Prof. Pinte; Charles Statton’s pet monkey; Mrs. Lackington (Egyptian Hall proprietress); letters to Mon. Huet, Mr. Collins. T. Brettell, T. Sheffield |
| 8/27/2021 | PTB Letters (#69) | A Correct Account of a Catastrophe | French conman; assisting son of English friends; views on giving; death of favorite pony; purchase of ponies in Scotland; E. Guillaudeu; Gen. Tom Thumb’s character and “brand”; Stirling Castle models of oak carvings; “fat children” in Glasgow; David Prince Miller; description of accident in Airdrie to be published; letters to Mr. Collins, D. Miller, R. Fillingham, Mr. Stuart, T. Brettell |
| 9/10/2021 | PTB Letters (#70) | Instructive Entertainments: Early 19th Century Panoramas | Acquiring panoramas; 1848 whaling voyage panorama shown at Mystic Seaport; bargaining for panorama of Napoleon’s funeral (re-interment); Messrs. Molteni & Co; Peter or William Marshall (moving panoramas in Scotland); Baltimore Museum; contract with Mr. Lambert (panorama painter); cost of panorama; letters to Mon. Huet, Moses Kimball, F. Hitchcock, Messrs. Draper & Co |
| 9/17/2021 | PTB Letters (#71) | I Entrust You with a Small Secret | Family matters; plan to make surprise visit home; success of Hop O’ My Thumb (play); Sherwood and Cynthia Stratton; steamship Great Western; anxiety re: wife’s health; letters rec’d from sister and daughter; Robert Hale (“Giant”); “fat children” sent by sailing vessel; popularity of Gen. Tom Thumb; letters to Capt. Matthews, Charity (wife); A. Taylor; Moses Kimball, F. Hitchcock |
| 9/24/2021 | PTB Letters (#72) | Unexpected News | Aboard SS Great Western; short visit home; family matters; Charity’s poor health; daughter at boarding school; orangutan sent to Amer. Museum; promoting in Baltimore newspapers; purchase of playbooks; popular farce at Adelphi Theatre; uncle’s sudden death, insolvency, and administration of his estate; letters to C. Stratton (Gen. Tom Thumb), A. Taylor |
| 10/1/2021 | PTB Letters (#73) | Igniting Interest: Barnum’s Views on the Loco-Foco Party | Politics in U.S.; name changes of political parties; Federalists, Whigs, Democrats, liberals, radicals, National Republicans, National Democrats; origin of name Loco-Foco; Barnum’s history of party names sent to London newspaper publisher; New York politicians; Tammany Hall; corruption and nepotism; Andrew Jackson; incident of Oct. 29, 1835; letter to J. Stewart, Esq. |
| 10/8/2021 | PTB Letters (#74) | I Shall Be Punctually at Spillman’s | Gosport, England; return from U.S.; Gen. Tom Thumb tour in south of England; woodcut (printing block); souvenir booklets; proposition from Bridgeport lawyer; strange story of Henry Ferguson; Yankee headquarters in London theatre district; the “animal business”; preparing for return to U.S.; shipping miniature carriages; autobiography; letters to T. Brettell, R. Fillingham |
| 10/15/2021 | PTB Letters (#75) | Wonderful Discoveries | Conclusion of copybook; personal letters reveal character; letters to NY Atlas; Barnum as foreign correspondent; dissatisfaction with own writing; Gen. Tom Thumb’s short trip to Spain; Spanish Queen and royals; bullfight; plagiarizing; disparaging comments; Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain); miraculous inventions; letters to Moses Kimball, Mrs. H. Barnum |