M.A., Cooperstown Graduate Programs (history and museum administration). Circus Historical Society: Past president, 1981-85; Convention Chairman, 1981-85, 2017. Retired; previously employed: Smithsonian Institution (Division of Performing Arts), 4 years; Circus World Museum, 2 summers either side of grad school; Feld Entertainment (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus), 4 years; and other non-circus related historical organizations. Published author in academic books and journals on history of popular entertainments. Elected 2008, American Antiquarian Society.
Publications
“’Like An Avalanche’: Traveling Circuses On Roads, Rivers, and Rails,” in Waterways and Byways, 1600‒1890 edited by Peter Benes and Jane Montague Benes. Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife (Boston: Boston University, 2014), pp. 116-124.
“Promoting Peerless Prodigies ‘To The Curious’” in The Amazing American Circus Poster: the Strobridge Lithographing Company edited by Kristin L Spangenberg and Deborah W. Walk. (Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Art Museum, [2011]), pp. 48-54.
“‘A Great Industrial Art’: Circus Posters, Business Risks, and the Origins of Color Letterpress Printing in America,” Printing History 25 (Whole Number 50 [2007]): 18-43.
“American Showmen and European Dealers: The Commerce in Wild Animals in 19th Century America,” in New Worlds, New Animals: From Menagerie to Zoological Park in the Nineteenth Century edited by R.J. Hoage and William A. Diess (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), pp. 97-108.
“Circus” entry in Encyclopedia of New York City edited by Kenneth Jackson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).
"Circus Ephemera: Printing, Advertising, and Showmanship in Victorian America,” AB/Bookman's Weekly 79 (May 4, 1987): 1949-1961.
"Entrepreneurial and Cultural Aspects of the Early Nineteenth-Century Circus and Menagerie Business," in Itinerancy in New England and New York edited by Peter Benes. Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife (Boston: Boston University, 1986), pp. 131-149.
Circus Posters: 1987 Calendar (New York: Abbeville, 1986) [annotated wall calendar]
"Circus Posters: The Big Top Preserved," Perspectives 5 (1985): 4-13.
"From the Midway to the Museum” in Preserving America’s Performing Arts edited by Barbara Cohen-Stratyner and Brigitte Kueppers (New York: Theatre Library Association, 1985), pp. 83-87.
“The Circus in America: ‘The World’s Largest, Grandest, Best Amusement Institution’,” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 40 (Summer 1983): 202-233.
“Meet Me in Dreamland: The Early Development of Amusement Parks in America” in Victorian Resorts and Hotels: Essays from a Victorian Society Autumn Symposium edited by Richard Guy Wilson (Philadelphia: Victorian Society in America, 1982), pp. 97-107.
"The Circus: A Brief Historical Overview" in Inner and Outer Worlds of the Circus edited by Susan J. Freiband (San Antonio: Institute for Intercultural Studies and Research, 1982), pp. 1-8.
Guide to the Hertzberg Circus Collection (San Antonio: San Antonio Public Library, 1981), 20 pp.
“The Origin of the Circus in America,” Bandwagon 25 (March-April 1981): 17-18.
“Show Folks’ Farewell: ‘See You Down the Road!’,” [Smithsonian] Notes on the Arts 2 (July- August 1980): 2-3.
Introduction to Euclid Beach Park—A Second Look by Lee Bush, et. al. (Mentor, Ohio: Amusement Park Books, 1979), pp. i-ii.
“The Evolution of the Circus in Nineteenth-Century America” in American Popular Entertainment: Papers and Proceedings of the Conference on the History of American Popular Entertainment edited by Myron Matlaw (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1979), pp. 187-195.
"Jumbo Recycled," Bandwagon 23 (July-August 1979): 17.
“The Circus Collections in the Library of Illinois State University, Normal,” Bandwagon 23 (May-June 1979): 22-23.
“With the Forepaugh-Sells Circus in 1902: A Journalist’s Vacation Aboard Lew Sells’ Private Car” by Richard C. Ellsworth and edited by Richard W. Flint, Bandwagon 23 (March-April 1979): 25-29.
“Lenape Park: A History from 1892 to the Break-Up of the Dentzel-Muller Carousel, 1978,” Merry-Go-Roundup 6 (Winter 1979): 3-5.
“William F. Mangels and America’s First Amusement Museum,” Merry-Go-Roundup 5 (October 1978): 3-6. Reprinted by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, April 1982.
Step Right Up! Show Business at the Turn of the Century (Rochester, New York: Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, 1977); catalog to the exhibit.
“A Selected Guide to Source Material on the American Circus,” Journal of Popular Culture 6 (Winter 1972): 615-619.
“Rufus Welch: America’s Pioneer Circus Showman,” Bandwagon 14 (September-October 1970): 4-11.
