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![Sneaking Under the Circus Tent, Roswell, New Mexico, April 1936](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20080916060127im_/http://www.americaslibrary.gov/assets/jb/nation/jb_nation_barnum_1_m.jpg)
Sneaking under the circus tent in Roswell, New Mexico in April 1936
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Phineas Taylor Barnum Was Born
July 5, 1810
Have you ever been to the circus? What about a sideshow with bearded ladies, giant elephants, and "real" mermaids? P.T. Barnum would like you to see them all.Born on July 5, 1810, in Bethel, Connecticut, Phineas Taylor Barnum became a master showman of both the genuine and the fantastic. Whether actual wonders or freakish fakes, Barnum's attractions always drew crowds. "Along in June P.T. Barnum would come to Waterbury, [Connecticut]," said a Barnum fan, Art Botsford, "We'd all go down on the morning train, and spend the day there. Shops [were] shut down tight. If they didn't nobody would work anyway."
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