Snopes rated the claim “In 1884, P.T. Barnum led 21 elephants to cross the Brooklyn Bridge to prove the structure was safe.” Mixture.
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P. T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum was an American showman, businessman, and politician remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus with James Anthony Bailey. He was also an author, publisher, and philanthropist, although he said of himself: "I am a showman by profession ... and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me." The adage "there's a sucker…
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business · American showman and politician (1810–1891) · showman · businessperson · politician · autobiographer · circus performer · writer · journalist · also P. T. Barnum, Phineas Taylor Barnum, PT Barnum, Phineas Barnum, P.T. Barnum, Barnum
Born 5 July 1810 · Died 7 April 1891 · Q223766
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2026· 2 entries
AOL: P.T. Barnum's Insight: Why Money Shouldn't Control Your Life
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2025· 1 entry
In 1883 to establish a museum, later known as Barnum Museum of Natural History, and hall for the department of natural history
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2021· 2 entries
Yahoo: Column: Could P.T. Barnum make it in today's world?
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TV Guide: P.T. Barnum - Full Cast & Crew
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2020· 3 entries
insider.si.edu: P.T. Barnum and General Tom Thumb
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Independent.ie: P.T. Barnum - The greatest showman or a huckster?
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insider.si.edu: P.T. Barnum, James Bailey and James Hutchinson
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1936· 1 entry
For Bridgeport's centennial celebration with Barnum's portrait for the obverse
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1907· 1 entry
For $400,000, equivalent to $13,821,429 in 2025
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1893· 1 entry
A statue in Barnum's honor was erected by his former partners James Bailey, James A
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1891· 3 entries
Barnum asked about the box-office receipts for the day, and a few hours later, he died
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Died 1891-04-07.
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“I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me.”
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1885· 1 entry
But they rejoined in 1888 with the "Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth", later the Barnum & Bailey Circus, which toured the world
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1883· 1 entry
Barnum cofounded, with Charles E
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1875· 3 entries
Career landmark: Mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut (1875–1876).
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As mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he worked to improve the water supply, bring gas lighting to streets and enforce liquor and prostitution laws
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Served as mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut to improve the water supply, bring gas lighting to streets and enforce liquor and prostitution laws
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1874· 1 entry
A few months after his wife's death, he married Nancy Fish, his friend's daughter and 40 years his junior
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1870· 1 entry
A traveling circus, menagerie and museum of "freaks" that adopted many names over the years
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1867· 1 entry
And lost to his third cousin William Henry Barnum
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1865· 1 entry
As a Republican for Fairfield, Connecticut
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1864· 1 entry
An actress who had served as a spy for the Union, to lecture about her "thrilling adventures" behind Confederate lines
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1862· 1 entry
Barnum discovered giantess Anna Swan and dwarf Commodore Nutt, a new Tom Thumb with whom Barnum visited President Abraham Lincoln at the White House
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1861· 1 entry
To which Barnum sent notice to the press for publicity
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1860· 2 entries
Barnum introduced Zip the Pinhead, a microcephalic black man who spoke a mysterious language created by Barnum
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Siamese twins Chang and Eng emerged from retirement and appeared at Barnum's museum for six weeks
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1853· 1 entry
Started the pictorial weekly newspaper Illustrated News
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1850· 1 entry
Promoted the American tour of Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, paying her an unprecedented $1,000, equivalent to $38,700 in 2025, per night for 150 nights
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1843· 1 entry
Barnum hired the Native American dancer Do-Hum-Me, the first of many Natives that he would present
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1842· 1 entry
Barnum introduced his first major hoax: a creature with the body of a monkey and the tail of a fish known as the "Feejee" mermaid
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1841· 1 entry
Located at Broadway and Ann Street in Manhattan
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1835· 1 entry
At the age of 25 with the purchase and exhibition of a blind and almost completely paralyzed slave woman named Joice Heth, whom an acquaintance was billing around Philadelphia as George Washington's 161-year-old former n
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1829· 1 entry
When he was 19 years old, Barnum married Charity Hallett, and they had four children: Caroline Cornelia (1833–1911), Helen Maria (1840–1915), Frances Irena (1842–1844) and Pauline Taylor (1846–1877)
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1810· 1 entry
Born 1810-07-05.
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