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The two most important technological advancements in the history of the American circus are the adoption of the canvas tent as theatre and of the railroad as a means of movement. We have never heard of any disagreement with that premise. As to the date and person or persons responsible for introducing the tent, however, there has been disagreement. We will try in this column to unravel the mystery.
The progression in types of arenas would seem to be from wooden buildings to sidewalls of canvas to complete tents. But as with all human endeavors, the story is not that neat. The wooden arena was expensive, permanent (in that it could not be moved) and gradually unwelcome in many cities because of the danger of fire. As early as 1807 the city fathers of Baltimore passed an ordinance forbidding the construction of wooden buildings in the center portion of that city. More important, as showmen began moving into smaller towns they were met by audiences restricted in size so that engagements became much shorter than previously. Instead of three weeks or a month of performances such as larger cities could support, small towns might only be profitable for three or four days. Because of this the expense of erecting a building was prohibitive.
The question then becomes, why show the smaller towns? Competition forced it. The number of circuses gradually increased as American impresarios came into the business beginning in 1823. The number of circuses advertising over the next five years reads like this: 1823, five; 1824, five; 1825, nine; 1826, thirteen; 1827, twelve; 1828, sixteen. There were not enough large cities to support all these shows.
Menageries had used canvas sidewalls for some time; it was no problem to include one in a caravan already moving by wagon. Benjamin Brown claimed that his brother Christopher used one in the period 1820-23 when they were exhibiting Hackaliah Bailey’s second elephant. Since most of the early American circus proprietors came from the Hudson Valley counties that were also home to the menagerie operators of the day, the connection is easily established and the dissemination of the knowledge accounted for.
One thing at which we can only guess, however, is the showman’s attitude toward canvas sidewalls. We have found no advertisement suggesting their use, thus it would appear that it was considered a step down from wooden arenas and therefore nothing to be publicized.
Troupes using tents (“pavilions” was the contemporary term) on the contrary, felt it was a feature to be noted and most of them headed their ads “Pavilion Circus.” This is an aid to research in the subject and establishes what we consider the fact that a circus playing a short engagement in a small town was using a sidewall if they did not advertise the use of a tent.
An examination into what historians have had to say on the adoption of the tent produces no consensus as to person or year, but must be included in order that a thesis be offered.
George Stone (1860) and T. Allston Brown (1861), the earliest commentators on circus history, offer nothing. Isaac Greenwood (1898) made two relative statements. The first: “These rolling shows (such as Aron Turner - ed.) were on the road much earlier (than 1817) and had . . . no band . . . no ringmaster and no tent.”
We include this quotation so as not to exclude any, but it is full of error. Aron Turner was not on the road before 1826; the earliest “rolling show” could not be before 1819, if then. But he does not ascribe a tent to Turner, as do some others.
Greenwood’s second statement is: “About 1828 we read of Buckley and Week’s circus (as an improvement on the sidewall) with . . . a tent of seventy-five feet diameter.” We wish we knew where he read this. Buckley had a show of his own in 1828 about which there is a dearth of information, but if it was a tent show, it was not the first. There was a circus in 1834 and 1835, and no other years, under the management of Buckley and Weeks and we wonder if Greenwood’s reference is to that.
Our next expert, W. C. Coup, wrote or had written for him in his supposed autobiography (1901): “The first circus ever in America was started by Nathan A. Howes and Aaron (sic) Turner under a top canvas in 1826.”
Of course, this wasn’t the first circus, but perhaps Coup meant the first tented circus. In any event there is no proof of Howes and Turner having a tent in 1826, as we will demonstrate.
Charles H. Day (1906) quotes George F. Bailey as saying, “In his first season on the road Turner used no top, only a sidewall, which he made himself. In 1830 the Turners had a ninety-foot top.”
Since Bailey was Turner’s son-in-law we doubt we’ll fine a better source. This would seem to eliminate Turner from the race.
Day also says, “Nathan Howes bought the elephant. Old Bet, in 1825 and was the first manager to use a round top the same year.”
This statement has been used far and wide. E. C. May in 1932 and Fox and Parkinson in 1969 being among those to repeat it. However, the first circus with Nathan Howes’ name on it did not appear until 1826, the same year Bailey’s second elephant (not Old Bet) was killed in Chepachet, Rhode Island. We know the beast was not with a circus - it was advertised alone - and we know that Crane, June and Company were exhibiting it because they gave Gerald Crane and L. B. Titus a receipt for its value after it was shot. That Nathan Howes may have leased the animal at some time is a possibility, but he did not exhibit it with a circus company.
R. W. G. Vail in his “Notes” published in 1933 says, “So it was naturally that Howes and Turner’s Circus should have, in 1826, embarked on a long and successful career under a full top canvas . . .”
This sounds as if it came from Coup, though Vail does not mention using that source. He quotes from Odell, May, Greenwood, Westervelt, Sturtevant, none of which date the tent in 1826. We will defer, for the moment, discussion of that year.
John Dingess (circa 1895) does not directly claim a year for the first tent, but goes into some detail concerning it and speaks of it in conjunction with Howes and Company, which he says was a partnership of Howes, Turner and Sylvester Reynolds. He dates it 1826.
C. G. Sturtevant and George Chindahl both quote sources we have listed above so we will not detail their statements. Excluding them, we find the following claims as to the year in which the tent first appeared: 1825 - C. H. Day, 1826 - Coup, Vail, Dingess, 1828 - Greenwood. And as to who introduced it: Buckley and Wicks - Greenwood, Howes and Turner - Coup, Vail, Dingess, Howes alone - Day.
Since only Day gave a source for his information, we must use the evidence at hand to reach a decision. Nathan Howes advertised his circus in 1826, as per Dingess, and Sylvester Reynolds is mentioned in the ads. Turner is not and we think a good case can be made for his not being Howes’ partner in 1826, but it has no meaning here.
Howes did not mention a tent - in fact, he showed in buildings on occasion - so we assume he was using a sidewall in the smaller towns. Further, 1826 would seem to be the earliest he used anything.
The earliest ad for a tented show appears in 1825. This was in Wilmington, Delaware, and appears, by geography, to be J. Purdy Brown’s circus. Brown used a tent in 1826, featured the facts in his ads and was, we believe, the first circus proprietor in the world to present tented exhibitions.
As for Howes, we cannot place him in a tent before 1828, and do so then with reservations. He was definitely in partnership with Aron Turner in that year and George F. Bailey said Turner had his first tent in 1830.
Somewhere in showman’s folklore the idea that Howes and Turner had the first tent got its start and as we’ve shown, it was wellrooted. Oddly, neither Howes nor Turner has been quoted on the subject and Dingess was the first to mention it. Purdy Brown, almost unknown, died unexpectedly at the age of thirty-four and the only written material we have from him is his will. Had he lived a normal span he might have made some statement as to this innovation which we hereby assign to him.
Source of quotations:
Isaac Green, The Circus, Its Origin and Growth Prior to 1835 (New
York, 1898).
John Dingess, unpublished manuscript, Hertzberg Collection.
William C. Coup, Sawdust and Spangles (New York, 1901).
Charles H. Day, “History of American Circus and Tented Exhibitions,” Billboard, December 29, 1906.
R. W. G. Vail, “Notes on the History of the Early American Circus,” Proceedings, American Antiquarian Society, (Worcester, 1933).
CHS webmaster J. Griffin, last modified December 2005.