Overview
Die cut illustrations of Barnum's Circus "sacred white elephant".
Dates
- Creation: circa 1884-1889
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.04 linear feet (1 volume)Two chromolithograph Barnum's Circus "Sacred Elephant" die cuts, with three trade cards featuring white elephants and clippings of a later date including one advertisement for the sacred white elephant at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Biographical / Historical
P. T. Barnum, proprietor of Barnum's Circus, brought the elephant named Toung Taloung, touted as a white elephant, to Jersey City (N.J.) from Burma (now also known as Myanmar) in 1884. The ensuing public discussion of the authenticity of the elephant as white engendered broader cultural debates about racial identity; these intensified when Barnum's competitor, Adam Forepaugh, brought an elephant named Light of Asia to New York (N.Y.) soon after. (Notes from Ross Bullen, "Race and the White Elephant War of 1884" in Public Domain Review, 2017.)
Arrangement
Collection is minimally processed.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2020MT-80. Purchased with funds from the Rose and Marian Hannah Winter Fund, 2019 November.
Processing Information
Accessioned by Melanie Wisner, 2020 January.
Subject
- Forepaugh, Adam, 1831-1890 (Person)
- Title
- Barnum's Circus "Sacred Elephant" die cuts, circa 1884-1889 (MS Thr 2021): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2020 January 3
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou03298
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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