ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0003-3268-5019

Graduation Semester and Year

2022

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in History

Department

History

First Advisor

Kenyon Zimmer

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on class composition in the traveling circus in the Gilded Age (1870s-1900s), the Progressive Era (1890s-1910s), and the New Era (1920s-1930s). American circuses became industrial operations beginning in the 1870s under the leadership of P.T. Barnum and his business partners, and within a few years, they had become the most important form of entertainment in the United States. By the turn of the twentieth century, the major industrial circuses employed around 1,200 people each and traveled the country in what amounted to a mobile factory town. However, up to this point, collective action by circus workers was virtually nonexistent, despite a uniquely insular culture and frequent instances of serious mistreatment. During the Barnum & Bailey tour of Europe in the 1890s, which altered the social geography of the circus workplace, class consciousness began to materialize. Employees of the show formed a fraternal order called the Benevolent and Protective Order of Tigers, which they imported to the United States upon their return in 1903. This society served as both a source of class consciousness and a forum for workers’ collective action. Despite this, circus workers remained largely unorganized and invisible to the forces of organized labor, partially due to their remarkable mobility compared to most other jobs. Although certain groups of employees, such as teamsters and billposters, joined their international unions early on, circus employees were not unionized across the board until 1937. Why did it take so long for this to occur? To what degree did circus employees see themselves as a class of and for themselves? How did the geography of the circus affect the development of classes within the workplace? This dissertation explores the previously untold story of the class composition and class struggle in the circus, which took place in fits and starts, and remains an ongoing process in the present.

Keywords

History, Labor, Geography, Circus, Entertainment, Popular history, Popular culture

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | History

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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