Sideshows & Spectacles: Victorian Entertainment Book of Postcards

Come one, come all! For high-wire entertainment, dramatic feats, original acts, and the most magnificent exhibitions from around the world, take a seat and enjoy the Victorian era’s dazzling sideshows and spectacles. (Performances daily—rain or shine.)

Magic shows, séances, pantomimes, and circus acts were popular forms of entertainment during the Victorian era, when interest in spiritualism and curiosities from faraway lands was at a peak. The industrial revolution wrought huge changes in society, and people found themselves with more time and money for leisure activities. From Modern Witchery to The Fakirs of Benares, these spectacles were advertised on colorful posters, attracting crowds to stages and fairground tents throughout Britain.

Images

1. Poole’s New Mammoth Diorama, 1882
2. Sanger’s Lord Mayors Show, 1882
3. Sanger’s Amphitheatre, 1886
4. Babil and Bijou, the Giant Amazon Queen, 1882
5. Modern Witchery, 1894
6. Chas W. Poole’s New Myriorama and Trips Abroad, n.d.
7. Myers’ Elephants Bathing, c. 1880
8. Mr. Charles Du Val, 1883
9. Buffalo Bill, 1887
10. Professor Pepper’s Ghosts, c. 1885
11. Walter Cole’s Refined Comic Concert Party, 1890
12. Poole’s Grand Pictorial Tours, 1885
13. Ella Zuila, 1885
14. Mr. Fleming Norton at Egyptian Hall, 1873
15. World’s Fair, 1874
16. Evil Spirit of the Plains, c. 1880
17. Beauty and the Beast, 1890
18. Hands Across the Sea, 1888
19. Crimes of Paris, c. 1883
20. Manhood, c. 1890
21. Contrabandista, c. 1868
22. Herr Winkelmeier, 1887
23. The Cocoon Illusion, 1887
24. Mrs. Daffodil Downey’s Séance, c. 1885
25. The Fakirs of Benares, 1884
26. Temptations of Good St. Anthony, 1881
27. Circus and Menagerie, c. 1881
28. Comic Illusory Sketch, Elixir Vitæ, 1878
29. Henry & Walter Wardroper, the Twin-Like Mimics, 1873
30. Lenton Family, c. 1886