Large-format black and white photographs, primarily group portraits, by Edward Kelty's Century Flashlight Photographers company document twenty circus troupes performing in the Midwest, East Coast, and Montreal, Canada. Also included in this collection are two photographs of circus troupes taken by other photographers.
After World War I, Edward J. Kelty made his main living taking traditional banquet and party photographs for his Century Flashlight Photographers Company, based in New York City. During the summer months, Kelty used a custom-made large-format camera and portable darkroom and followed circus troupes around the East Coast and Midwest, taking some of the most vivid photographs known to circus historians. However, lingering injuries from his Navy service in World War I, other personal struggles, and the hardships of the Depression led to Kelty closing his business and selling his camera and negatives by the early 1940s. Kelty died in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967.
The donor of this collection, Harry Baugh, was an executive of circus troupes during the first part of the 20th-century and was a long-standing member of the Circus Fans Association.
Photographs by the Century Flashlight Photography Company are arranged alphabetically by the name of the circus company or group depicted and therein chronologically by date. Two circus photographs by other photographers are listed last.
Gift, Harry Baugh, circa 1944
Previously cataloged as MWEZ+++ n.c. 9337