Scope and arrangement
The collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, ephemera from the circus and entertainment milieu, and some biographical material on Barnum. The correspondence is outgoing, covering the years 1846 to 1890, and mostly to Moses Kimball of the Boston Museum and Gordon Lester Ford of the New York Tribune. Also included is a sketch of Barnum's career published as the introduction to the two volume biography Struggles and Triumphs (1927) by George S. Bryan; newspaper clippings, mostly from 1843, but also including later advertisements and obituary notices from 1891; and such ephemera as ticket vouchers, name tags, and menus.