Single Circus Poster P.T. Barnum Greatest Show On Earth Greeting Card

The circus with a circular arena surrounded by tiers of seats, for the exhibition of equestrian, acrobatic and other performances seems to have existed since the late 18th century. The first performance of his circus is said to have been held on January 9, 1768 by John Astley. His major contributions to the circus was bringing trick horse-riding into a ring. In order that equestrian acts could move from one circus to another, the diameter of the circus ring was set at 42 feet (13 m), which is the size of ring needed for horses to circle comfortably at full gallop. Astley added tumblers, tightrope-walkers, jugglers, performing dogs, and a clown to fill time between his own demonstrations, he created a modern circus. Astley never called his performances a 'circus'; that title was thought up by Charles Dibdin, who in partnership with Astley rival Charles Hughes, who opened the Royal Circus on 4 November 1782, a short distance from Astley Amphitheater of Equestrian Arts in Lambeth, London. The Englishman John Bill Ricketts brought the first modern circus to the United States. The American circus was revolutionized by P. T. Barnum and William Cameron Coup, who launched P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus, a traveling combination of animal and human oddities, the exhibition of humans as a freak show or sideshow was thus an American invention. Coup was also the first circus entrepreneur to use circus trains to transport the circus from town to town; a practice that continues today and introduced the first multiple ringed circuses.