Phineas Taylor Barnum (5 July 1810-7 April 1891) was an American showman, circus tycoon, businessman, and Republican politician who served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1866 to 1869, founded the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1871, and served as Mayor of Bridgeport from 1875 to 1876.
Biography[]
Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut in 1810, named for his maternal grandfather, the Whig politician Phineas Taylor, a great influence on his life. In 1829, he started the weekly The Herald of Freedom newspaper in Danbury, and he became a champion of the liberal movement by criticizing local church leaders and supporting freedom of the press after being imprisoned for two months for libel. In 1835, he began his career as a showman by "leasing" a blind and paralyzed slave woman whom he claimed to be George Washington's 161-year-old former nurse. She died in 1836 at the age of 80, and Barnum hosted a live autopsy of her body, revealing that she was likely half her character's age. In 1841, he purchased Scudder's American Museum on Broadway, and it became a popular showplace full of taxidermied animals, albinos, giants, dwarfs, jugglers, magicians, exotic women, detailed models of battles and cities, and a menagerie of animals. He also became known for his hoaxes, including the "Fiji mermaid" (a monkey with a fish's tail), and he toured with a dwarf known as "General Tomb Thumb", who began drinking wine by the age of 5 and smoking cigars by 7 to amuse the public, including Queen Victoria, who was saddened by him. In 1850, he paid the Swedish opera singer an unprecedented $1,000 a night for 150 nights as she toured the country, but years of bad investments, litigation, and public humiliation during the 1850s led to his financial ruin. He recovered while working as a temperance speaker, he switched from being a Democrat to a Republican in 1854, and his museum added America's first aquarium and expanded its wax-figure department. He went on to serve in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1866 to 1869, and he supported the abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude, saying that "the body of a Chinaman, a Turk, an Arab, or a Hottentot" are all immortal spirits. From 1875 to 1876, he served as Mayor of Bridgeport, working to improve the water supply, bring gas lighting to the streets, and enforce liquor and prostitution laws. In 1878, he founded Bridgeport Hospital and served as its first president. He died of a stroke at his home in 1891, and his namesake Barnum & Bailey Circus survived from its foundation in 1871 until its final show on 21 May 2017, when it closed down due to animal rights concerns and increased production costs.