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