Mons. De Ruth catching a cannon ball fired from a real cannon, loaded and discharged in the presence of the audience.: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This colored print is an advertisement for W. W. Cole's New York & New Orleans Circus Museum Menagerie. A man is catching a ball that has been fired from a cannon by another man dressed in an elaborate military uniform. An audience looks on from the background.

William Washington Cole (1847-1915), nicknamed “Chilly Billy,” was born into a circus family in New York City: his father was a contortionist and his mother a wire walker. He became a sideshow proprietor in 1867 and started W. W. Cole's New Colossal Shows in 1884. Cole was both a competitor and a temporary partner to his fellow circus entrepreneur P. T. Barnum: in the late 1880s he briefly owned a share in Barnum and Bailey’s circus. After he sold Cole Bros. in 1904, it continued to operate under various names and owners, eventually becoming Cole Bros. Circus of the Stars. During the twentieth century, it featured some of America’s most celebrated circus performers, including the animal trainers Clyde Beatty and Allen Turner, the clown Emmett Kelly, and the Flying Wallendas. With growing competition from television in the 1950s, Cole Bros. combined with the Clyde Beatty Circus to become one of the last of the traditional three ring circuses. Animal rights protests contributed to the continued decline of the circus, and it was largely out of business by 2016.

This chromolithograph was produced by Strobridge and Company. The Strobridge firm was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio ca 1847 by lithographer Elijah J. Middleton (cited in some sources as Elijah C. Middleton). Middleton was known as one of the pioneers of chromolithography in the United States. By 1854 another lithographer, W. R. Wallace, along with the bookseller Hines Strobridge (1823-1909) had joined the firm as partners. After the Civil War, Strobridge acquired sole ownership of the company and renamed it after himself. Strobridge and Company became especially well known for circus, theater, and movie posters. After leaving the company, Elijah Middleton established a reputation as a portrait publisher, producing prints of George and Martha Washington, Daniel Webster, and other American historical figures.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1879
• copyright holder: Stewart, A. A.
• maker: Strobridge and Company
• Object Name: chromolithograph
• Object Type: Chromolithograph
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Measurements: image: 16 in x 25 in; 40.64 cm x 63.5 cm
• place made: United States: Ohio, Cincinnati
• Subject: Costume
• Subject: Expositions and Fairs
• Subject: Wild Animals
• Subject: Lighting
• Subject: Chronology: 1870-1879
• Subject: Circus
• Subject: Uniforms, Military
• ID Number: DL.60.3032
• catalog number: 60.3032
• Credit Line: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.