The Greatest Show and Showman on Earth

Today we salute the great American huckster, circus showman, and promoter of oddities Phineas Taylor Barnum, born on this day in 1810.

This circus scene from the Smithsonian American Art Museum was made by folk artist Albina Felski. In this painting, Felski included virtually every concievable circus act, particularly those involving animals. She was often inspired to paint animals… from photographs taken by her brothers in their native British Columbia.

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured: Albina Felski, 1916 Canada–1996 USA, The Circus, 1971, acrylic, 48 x 48 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.