Bound volume of copied letters in P.T. Barnum's hand, dating from July 1845 to August 1846. This book dates to Barnum’s 1844-1846 tour of Europe, during which time he introduced his star performer, Charles S. Stratton (1838 -1883), better known by his stage name "General Tom Thumb," to European heads of state, royalty, and the public. This volume contains a wealth of primary information dating to the most significant time period in Barnum's early career. The letters date to Barnum’s and Stratton’s travels in France, following a highly successful year in England where Stratton was granted multiple audiences with Queen Victoria. Barnum's letters contain anecdotes of the trip, and information about how he organized the performances at each location, how much he paid people for their services, the venues he rented, and so on. Managed by Barnum, Stratton toured and performed throughout the British Isles and parts of Europe although he was child, aged six to eight years old during the course of the tour. At this time in Stratton’s life, he was about 24 inches tall, perfectly proportioned, and often billed as a “Man in Miniature.” This tour set the stage for both Barnum’s and Stratton’s highly successful careers. Stratton’s engaging performances, energetic personality, and charisma captured the hearts of royalty and ordinary people alike. Coupled with Barnum’s skill as a promoter and marketer, the two quickly gained fame and wealth. At the end of the tour, the pair returned to New York City and Barnum’s American Museum. The professional relationship and friendship begun in these years continued until Stratton’s death in 1883. The volume contains correspondence with both family members and business associates, as well as a few drafts of text for tickets Barnum wished to have printed. The content of the letters is varied: Barnum discusses business transactions and negotiations, as well as personal matters, and he records incidents and anecdotes, which were the basis for newspaper stories. His autobiographies also draw upon these anecdotes. Following the tabbed index pages at the front of the book, the copy pages begin with a partial letter, which indicates that Barnum had just finished up a similar copybook and was starting on another. That partial letter is identified as no. 68, but is undated since the first page is not included. The following letter is dated July 14, 1845, and is identified as letter no. 69. The book, containing approximately 750 pages of thin, translucent paper. The darker "copy" appears on the back of each page, but as the paper is so thin, the words can be read from the front side. (The images in this digital surrogate have been enhanced by the method of photographing, inserting a plain sheet of paper behind each page.) The volume's cover includes a title plate, Dixon's Letter Copy Book, Dixon being a "brand" of copybook. An additional old though not original label on the cover refers to the letters as carbon copies. Graphite (a more stable form of carbon) was transferred to the back of each thin page, a method confirmed by magnified examination of the pen point impressions. The front side of each page shows sharp indentations made by the pen tip (likely a steel pen not a quill), while the back side shows corresponding areas with the letters slightly raised. The letter to be sent was also a carbon copy, but on good quality paper. The stationery paper was placed underneath the two-sided "carbonated" paper, at the bottom of the "stack" of three sheets: the translucent page in the copybook on top, the inserted "carbonated" paper in the middle, and the inserted stationery page underneath. "Carbon copy" methods of transfer have a long history, but this form corresponds to Englishman Ralph Wedgwood's invention in 1806.
