Background Information for Episode 205a

Have you ever wanted to join the circus?

In episode 205a, Dr Sage and Professor Savant travel back to the 1880’s where a real circus used to perform up and down the Mississippi. They traveled the river via steamboat, Camp’s Grand Southern Circus.

Here are some of the news clippings about the circus

A call to all parties engaged with the Great Southern Circus. The ladies and gentlemen engaged for the above show will report in Cincinnati at 10 o’clock a.m., September 9. The show includes seventy people in all, and is to begin a tour Sept. 10. E. N. Camp, Cincinnati
New York Clipper, August 28, 1880, pp. 179, 183.

Camp’s Grand Southern Circus is to pitch tents for the first time in the First Ward, Cincinnati, Sept. 10,and exhibits in Newport, Ky., 11.
New York Clipper, September 4, 1880, p. 187.

Steamboats helped develop the Mississippi River into a major transportation route for both passengers and freight. Using steam, the riverboats could navigate the shallow waters and easily move upstream against the strong currents of the river. Up and down the Mississippi River and tributaries towns depended on steamboats for their connection to the outside world.  N. E. Camp realized it was a good way to get his circus around.

 

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