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PHINEAS TAYLOR BARNUM (1810-1891)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 417 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHINEAS See also:

TAYLOR See also:BARNUM (1810-1891)  , See also:American show-See also:man, was See also:born in See also:Bethel, See also:Connecticut, on the 5th of See also:July 1810, his See also:father being an See also:inn- and See also:store-keeper . See also:Barnum first started as a store-keeper, and was also concerned in the lottery See also:mania then prevailing in the See also:United States . After failing in business, he started in 1829 a weekly See also:paper, The See also:Herald of Freedom, in See also:Danbury; after several See also:libel suits and a See also:prosecution which resulted in imprisonment, he moved to New See also:York in 1834, and in 1835 began his career as a showman, with his See also:purchase and exploitation of a coloured woman, Joyce Heth, reputed to have been the See also:nurse of See also:George See also:Washington, and to be over a See also:hundred and sixty years old . With this woman and a small See also:company he made well-advertised and successful See also:tours in See also:America till 1839, though Joyce Heth died in 1836, when her See also:age was proved to be not more than seventy . After a See also:period of failure, he See also:purchased Scudder's American Museum, New York, in 1841; to this he added considerably, and it became one of the most popular shows in the United States . He made a See also:special See also:hit by the See also:exhibition, in 1842, of See also:Charles Stratton, the celebrated " See also:General Tom Thumb " (see See also:DWARF) . In 1844 Barnum toured with the dwarf in See also:England . A remarkable instance of his enterprise was the engagement of Jenny See also:Lind to sing in America at $See also:I000 a See also:night for one hundred and fifty nights, all expenses being paid by the entrepreneur . The tour began in 1850 . Barnum retired from the show business in 1855, but had to See also:settle with his creditors in 1857, and began his old career again as showman and museum proprietor . In 1871 he established the " Greatest Show on See also:Earth," a travelling amalgamation of See also:circus, See also:menagerie and museum of " freaks," &c . This show, incorporated in the name of " Barnum, See also:Bailey & See also:Hutchinson," and later as " Barnum & Bailey's " toured all over the See also:world .

In 1907 the business was sold to Ringling See also:

Brothers . Barnum wrote several books, such as The Humbugs of the World (1865), Struggles and Triumphs (1869), and his Autobiography (1854, and later See also:editions) . He died on the 7th of See also:April 1891 .

End of Article: PHINEAS TAYLOR BARNUM (1810-1891)
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