This card shows a tableau with Indra the Elephant as the main attraction. Tableaus containing exotic animals were popular around 1908, the year of the Earl’s Court Exhibition, London.
A souvenir postcard from one of Frank Bostock’s Jungle appearances. Artist unknown to date.
A card, also from Frank Bostock’s Jungle tours. It can be dated to 1908.
The rear view of the above card, showing Bostock’s enterprising use of associated advertising.
It has been a while since I published anything. However, I have been very busy researching travelling menageries. I am currently conducting a research project at the University of London on the subject of early travelling menageries and associated visual culture. That’s why I have not published articles here. It has uncovered a wealth of information and that will keep me going for several years I think! One day, I hope to announce that we can say we ‘know’ the early history of George Wombwell the menagerist. Included in this will be an account of the so called ‘Warwick Dog Fight’. I have some surprises in store for you all on that subject! Right now, I have to concentrate on the matters in hand.
A postcard sized coloured advert for Barnham and Sanger outfits (1882)
I have also been busy collecting items associated with the subject and also with early circuses like Sanger’s. Below is the first batch of items that will, in due course be added to the research website. A short description is attached to each item. Sometimes I have to rely on the originator’s description which may not be 100% accurate. As always, higher resolution images have been stored.The card shows Barham, Sanger and Hutchinson together with a procession including the Lion Queen on the elephant from Sanger’s outfit (his wife Ellen). Eventually, after about 1880 the Barnum outfit became known as Barnum & Bailey’s. The original poster would represent some time between 1881-1887 after which date Hutchinson retired. His main job was as booking agent and he had worked for Van Amburg’s some time during the 1870s.
The postcard is much later of course and some ‘granny’ must have received it hand delivered!
This undated card is thought to be from Paris.
This card shows a ‘Black Comic Parade’ and is marked 1904. Its origin is not yet known.
The card was sent from Brussels during 1904 or it may be 1922-23. I’m no philatelist! Research is required to place this troupe in the history of entertainment and identity studies.
Here is another cracking image from the Goose Fair in Nottingham showing Bostock and Wombwell’s presence in the centre of the city during the early 1900s. Note the juxtaposition between the outfit and the statue of Queen Victoria, fascinating! The menagerie was always centre stage when it went to the fair.
Further items will be added shortly.
The following photographs have emerged of Bostock and Wombwell caravans probably travelling in the vicinity of Glasgow. Arthur Feeley is the elephant handler on the right in two of the photographs.
Updated and corrected version
This photograph from a glass plate negative (poor condition) came to light recently and is now in the GeorgeWombwell.com collection.
Do you recognise either of these ‘drivers’? Let us know if your ancestors were drivers or elephant handlers with Bostock and Wombwell’s Travelling Menagerie.
The date is probably around 1900, but it may be earlier or even later.
The photograph shows a young African Asian elephant (large ears) so it cannot might be a young ‘Sir Roger’ (see research report when published) and if it is before 1900 it might be an elephant known as ‘Bill’ which was travelling around the same time and was recorded at the Goose Fair in Nottingham during 1896. A full research report will appear on the research website in due course.
Addenum: Thanks to Jim Stockley for correcting my undoubted lack of knowledge in the zoological department!
Thanks also to Geoff Younger for suggesting the man standing at the back might be Arthur Feeley. Arthur had been injured during WW1 and was given permission to travel inside the vans according to Geoff. This then might date the photograph from 1917 onwards when Arthur returned to duties at Bostock and Wombwell.
reproduced by kind permission of Geoffrey Younger, date unknown
I have been contacted by Geoffrey Younger with photographs by Arthur Feely, who used to be an elephant handler in the early 20th century. Geoffrey also says Arthur can be seen in the Hull Fair photograph recently published on here and the research website.
Geoffrey is Arthur’s grandson and has published some information about Arthur on the NFA website. Elephants were used extensively in travelling menageries for hauling waggons in the early days. I will be publishing a rare early photograph in the next few weeks concerning this practice.
reproduced by kind permission of Geoffrey Younger, date unknown
Close up of the booth from our Hull Fair photograph circa 1904
Geoffrey thinks Arthur is the man on the right in the close up of our Hull Fair photogragh.I think Geoffrey is correct. If anyone knows who else is in the photograph, then please contact us. It seems Arthur was a loyal worker for the menagerie.
The Tiger That Swallowed The Boy: Exotic Animals In Victorian England.
John Simons. Libri, 208pp, £ 12.00. ISBN 9781907471711. Published 4 November 2012
I have to say, I did not know of its existence till a reader tipped me off. Anyway I have this text and provide the following review, taking into consideration the other reviews already published over the last 12 months.
John Simons is Professor and Executive Dean of Arts at Macquarie University, Australia and has previously released books on animal studies including Rossetti’s Wombat: Pre-Raphaelites and Australian Animals in Victorian London, 2008.
I therefore thought this text would be a scholarly work, but it is not. It is a good read nonetheless, and includes many of the facts and myths surrounding travelling menageries. It goes far beyond these menageries and covers zoos and private menageries as well as museums.
The Times Higher Education Supplement reviewed the book and made the following observations:
Drawing in part on a “spoil heap of material” from his 2008 book Rossetti’s Wombat: Pre-Raphaelites and Australian Animals in Victorian London, which told the story of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s menagerie, Simons offers engaging and entertaining tales of how a tapir terrorised the people of Rochdale, the growth of Belle Vue and other zoological gardens and, of course, an account of the titular tiger that swallowed the boy. Equally interesting is his consideration of the trade in exotic animals and the clash of empires, in particular those of Germany and Great Britain. Despite its entertaining stories, however, the main problem with this book is that the research appears populated with the sensational narrative style of many 19th-century voices and less so, it appears, with archival sources. Too often, Simons’ conversational style has the flavour of a cut-and-paste assemblage of anecdotes, references and ripping yarns.
I tend to agree and I am disappointed that there are no footnotes and paged or chapter referenced bibliographies, other than a final Select Bibliography. I would have expected more from a scholar, which leads me to think it was a hurried publication of an unfinished project.
Nevertheles, it makes good reading and has provided many interesting ideas that can be followed up thoroughly in future. Available on Amazon via the link below:
The Tiger That Swallowed the Boy: Exotic Animals in Victorian England
Hull, in East Yorkshire is one of those cities that has a long tradition of markets and fairs. The Hull Fair is a regular annual event from the thirteenth century onwards and is rivelled only by the Nottingham Goose Fair and Bartholomew’s Fair in central London. It was then, a popular destination for the travelling menageries. Wombwell is known to have attended and Bostock and Wombwell shows were a favorite with the nineteenth century audiences.
There were a series of excellent photographs taken of B&W at Hull Fair. This is probably the finest example of the menagerie booth photographs that exist and was possibly taken in 1919 although the fashion might indicate somewhat earlier.
During the early part of the twentieth century, Frank Bostock returned to England from New York and toured his Bostock’s Jungle. It visited several large cities and Earl’s Court, another of those large exhibition sites in London. It had also operated for 7 months in Sheffield, South Yorkshire during 1910.
Here is one of the many postcards produced to advertise the shows:
At the very end of the Menageries era, circuses were finding winter quarters. One famous venue was the Olympia exhibition halls in central London. Bertam Mills were regular occupants over the winter for a period greater than thirty years. Indeed, it is where I was introduced to the circus for the first time. Here is the front cover and some internal pages from the 1936 season programme.
Other scanned images are available.
Charles Jamrach (1815 – 1891) was the leading dealer and his emporium was situated in what was then known as Ratcliff Highway in east London — at the time the largest such shop in the world. From the description the building can be placed on the 1868 Edward Weller map of London near to the Tobacco Dock somewhere along St George’s Road (to the right of North Quay).
Jamrach was born in Germany. His father, Johann Gottlieb Jamrach, waschief of the Hamburg river police, whose contacts with sailors enabled him to build up a trade as a dealer in birds and wild animals, establishing branches in Antwerp and London. George Wombwell is thought to have started in a similar fashion having made acquaintances with many sea captains coming into the London docks earlier in the century.
Charles Jamrach moved to London and took over that branch of the business after his father’s death in circa 1840. He became a leading importer with agents in other major British ports, including Liverpool, Southampton and Plymouth. As indicated in the article, his business included a shop and a museum named Jamrach’s Animal Emporium and it is thought Jamrach also had a menagerie in Betts Street in the East End and a warehouse in Old Gravel Lane, Southwark, in South London.
