20th Century Circuses in Illinois: Sources and Further Reading
Sources
Davis, Janet M. The Circus Age: Culture & Society under the American Big Top. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Harzberg, Hiler, and Arthur Moss. Slapstick and Dumbbell; a Casual Survey of Clowns and Clowning. New York, J. Lauren, 1924. http://archive.org/details/slapstickdumbbel00harz.
Kotar, S. L., and J. E. Gessler. The Rise of the American Circus, 1716-1899. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2011.
Sizorn, Magali. “The Artification of Trapeze Acts: A New Paradigm for Circus Arts.” Cultural Sociology 13, no. 3 (2019): 354–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975519853718.
Stoddart, Helen. Rings of Desire: Circus History and Representation. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. http://archive.org/details/ringsofdesirecir0000stod.
Truzzi, Marcello, ed. “The Decline of the American Circus: The Shrinkage of an Institution.” In Sociology and Everyday Life, 314–22. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1968. http://archive.org/details/sociologyeveryda00truzrich.
Further Reading
Read issues of Bandwagon, a circus history magazine.
Explore Illinois State University's Circus Films collection.
Listen to circus music recorded in the 1960s:
Merry-Go-Round & Circus Calliope Music
Nonfiction books on circuses and circus life:
The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age by John Woolf
The Electric Woman by Tessa Fontaine
Love in the Elephant Tent by Kathleen Cremonesi