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Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Circus Prints and Ephemera: Finding
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priJLC_ENT_Circus
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Title: Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Circus Prints and Ephemera
Dates (inclusive): 1846-1990s
Bulk dates: 1890-1960
Collection Number: priJLC_ENT_Circus
Collector:
Last, Jay T.
Extent:
approximately 870 items
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Prints and Ephemera
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Circus Prints and Ephemera contains more than 850 printed items that relate to
circuses in the United States from the 1846
to the 1990s. The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials, business records, and illustrations produced
for or pertaining to circuses, their tours and shows, staff
and performers, acts and exhibits, and animals.
Language: English.
Note:
Finding aid last updated on February 19, 2020.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities.
The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the
researcher.
[Item title, Call number]. Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Circus Prints and Ephemera, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, which was
donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the Circus Prints and Ephemera were transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2013.
The Jay T. Last Collection is an unparalleled archive of printed paper artifacts that documents American lithographic, social,
and business history. The collection began in the early 1970s when
physicist and Silicon Valley pioneer Jay Last moved to Southern California and started collecting citrus box labels he found
at local flea markets and rummage sales. As his collection grew,
Last realized that these labels conveyed important information about commercial printing, graphic design, and social history,
and he expanded his collection to include other forms
of American visual culture. Today this collection contains more than 200,000 lithographic prints, posters, and ephemera of
mostly nineteenth- and early twentieth- century American
origin and represents works by more than five hundred lithographic companies.
The Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Circus Prints and Ephemera contains more than 850 printed items that relate to
circuses in the United States from the 1846
to the 1990s. The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials, business records, and illustrations produced
for or pertaining to circuses, their tours and shows, staff
and performers, acts and exhibits, and animals.
Materials are arranged in three series: small-size prints and ephemera (11 x 14 inches or less); large-size prints and ephemera
(more than 11 x 14 inches); and broadsides and handbills.
The small-size items are described broadly at the series level; large-size items are fully inventoried and all printers, artists,
and publishers are indexed by name; and the
broadsides and handbills contain item-level entries that include the circus name, date, printer (when identified), and show
location (when applicable).
The collection has 220 large-size items comprised mainly of lithographic posters containing brightly colored images of featured
circus acts, performers, and animals that
were typically posted outdoors in advance of the circus coming to town.
Small-size items in the collection number more than 500 and are comprised mainly of advertising and promotion ephemera and
business documents such as trade cards, programs and souvenir books,
route cards, envelopes, tickets, songsters, and printed billheads and letterheads.
The 130 broadsides, handbills, and related advertisements consist primarily of long, narrow broadsides printed on newspaper
paper in black ink using letterpress type
that advertised upcoming circus shows and were intended to be distributed by hand, left in stacks in public places, or posted
on walls, fences, or in windows in advance of the circus’s arrival in a town.
This collection provides a resource for studying the history of the American circus and its impact on popular entertainment
and advertising in the 19th and 20th centuries.
As graphic materials, the items offer evidence of the development of printmaking techniques and trends, and of the artists,
engraves, lithographers, printers, and
publishers involved in the creation of these prints.
Alternative Form of Materials Available
Visit the
Huntington Digital Library: Jay T. Last Collection
to view digitized items from this collection.
Related materials in the Huntington Library include
- Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Balls and Carnivals Prints and Ephemera
- Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Performing Arts Prints and Ephemera
- Jay T. Last Collection of Entertainment: Theatrical Broadsides and Playbills
Note: The Huntington Library Historical Prints Collection contains one related item (priHHC_ENT_0000001) that is listed in
the "Related Materials" section at the beginning of Series II in this finding aid.
Items are arranged in the following three series:
- Series I. Circus Prints and Ephemera (small size)
- Series II. Circus Prints and Ephemera (large size)
- Series III. Circus Broadsides and Handbills
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Advertisements.
Billheads.
Business cards.
Business records.
Business records -- United States -- 19th century.
Business records -- United States -- 20th century.
Chromolithographs.
Circus posters.
Ephemera.
Engravings.
Leaflets (printed works).
Letterheads.
Lithographs.
Posters.
Printed ephemera.
Prints.
Promotional materials.
Relief prints.
Trade cards.
Acrobats -- Pictorial works.
Advertising -- Circus.
Animal trainers -- Pictorial works.
Circus -- Pictorial works.
Circus -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Sources.
Circus -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Circus animals -- Pictorial works.
Circus performers -- Pictorial works.
Circus owners -- Pictorial works.
Clowns -- Pictorial works.
Curiosities and wonders -- Pictorial works.
Entertainment events -- Pictorial works.
Horsemen and horsewomen -- Pictorial works.
Women circus performers -- Pictorial works.
Printer, Publisher, Artist Index
The following is a complete list of printers, publishers, and artists represented in the large-size prints and ephemera (Series
II) in this collection.
Acme Show Print (Firm)
American Show Print (Firm)
Bailey, Bill.
Biggerstaff, Bill.
Butler, Roland, 1887-1961.
Central Ptg. and Illinois Litho. Co.
Central Show Printing Co.
Chicago Show Printing Co.
Colorcraft Poster Co.
Coplan, Maxwell Frederic.
Courier Company.
Courmont Freres.
Currier & Ives.
Donaldson Litho. Co.
Erie Litho. & Ptg. Co.
Freeland, Forrest Dean, -1975.
G. & W. Endicott
Gibson & Co. (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Globe Poster Corp.
Graphics 2000 (Las Vegas, Nev.)
Howe, George, 1886-1955.
J.H. & F.F. Farwell (Firm)
Majestic Poster Press.
Neal Walters Poster Corporation.
Potthast, Edward Henry, 1857-1927.
Rimanoczy, A., 1832-1910.
Ripley, Robert L. (Robert LeRoy), 1890-1949.
Riverside Printing Company
Rothengatter, Emil, 1848-1939.
Sanford, George T.
Sharp, Howard Bird, 1877-1952.
Strobridge Lithographing Company
Triangle Poster & Printing Company
Wood, Lawson, 1878-1957.