Handbill advertising the The Towering Giant Consolidation! P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth and the Great London circus for 1881 featuring Chang the Chinese Giant. This handbill is in full color, and is printed on yellow paper. Red-orange ink is the primary contrasting color, along with black ink. Advertised on the handbill are a detail of expenses, elephants, camels, Chang the Chinese giant, additional wild animals, and the presence of the Original Gen. Tom Thumb and Wife (Charles S. Stratton and M. Lavinia Warren) as well as three trains, 20 trick stallions, and a street parade. J.A. Bailey, P.T. Barnum, and H.L. Hutchinson are depicted at the top of the bill in portraits. Beneath them is a parade of Asiatic elephants bedecked in south east Asian inspired costume. Centered between two columns of advertising text is a full color portrait of Chang the Chinese Giant, who wears a purple robe and towers over the crowd there to see him, In one hand he holds another person, perhaps a little person, and in the other he holds a watch. Two columns of illustrations make up the lower third of hand bill. On the left side of the bill is a circus wagon with snakes, an extremely large black stallion, a wild rhino in the processed of being captured, and a horse pulling along a cart with an organ or calliope built into it. The right side illustrations feature a very large bull being displayed, elephants lined up neatly in a row, two sets of men wrestling, and two camels. Measures 46 inches by 15 inches. Barnum is best known for his involvement with the circus that bore his name, but his circus ventures came about when he was in his 60s. The first show was called P.T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus. Railroads propelled the circus to success, making it easier to reach a number of locations, and the intake was significant. Barnum then opened the New York Hippodrome with similar acts. In the 1880s, he encountered competition from other circuses. A merger between Barnum's show and the Great London Show of Cooper, Bailey, and Hutchinson formed the Barnum and London Circus. Negotiations in 1887 formed the Barnum and Bailey circus. The name remained until 1919 when it became the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It came to an end in May 2017 when the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus ceased performances after 146 years.
