Imagine you lived in the 1800s, before radio or TV. How were you entertained? You had theater, and parades, and books. And, once or twice a year, (depending on where you live) a circus would come through your town.

I am endlessly fascinated by the history of the circus, in the US and around the world and just had to share this collection of poster art I came across.

If you were a kid in a small, rural town, how could you not be excited to see these posters go up in your town?

Circuses had all sorts of terrible practices and it’s good we’ve moved on from them mostly now, but looking back, I find this all really interesting.