The circus has always been a space rife with visual splendor. Long before a certain FX anthology series brought “freak shows” into the pop culture conversation, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey made clowns and acrobats essential elements of entertainment when they merged in 1919. In fact, together, they amounted to “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
Sale 2374 Lot 33: KELTY, EDWARD J. (1888-1967) “Congress of Clowns.” Panoramic silver print, 11 1/8×19 5/8inches (28.3×49.9 cm.), with Kelty’s credit, title, and date in the negative, and with 2 duplicate examples of his Century Circus Photographer hand stamp on verso. 1935. Estimate $3,000 – 4,500. From the Collection of Alan Siegel. This print has been exhibited at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. One Man’s Eye: Photographs from the Alan Siegel Collection, p. 40.
