About

This project interrogates the stories of performing circus animals and their trainers during the nineteenth century. It proposes a new way of approaching Victorian history through a combined methodology of history and literature and a distinct chronology which deals with animal lifecycles. Using the perspective of the circus transforms our understanding of the era by comparing local and global histories within the movements of specific circuses over time. Circuses had considerable power in producing public perceptions through their acts, with animals and their trainers often setting the tone. Thus, this project offers unique findings for animal and entertainment histories, while redefining how we approach the long nineteenth century.

Lions, horses and dogs were selected for this study due to the radically different spaces they occupy in contemporary thought, and their centrality to circus success. Comparing these species raises and answers key questions about how these animals traversed roles of pet, performer and property on and off stage, and how this movement engaged with animal and human intersubjectivities. Such transition between categories could be playful, affectionate, or destructive (sometimes all three), yet they each informed how relationships with animals were formed and re-negotiated. 

Why is this project important today? Public fascination with animal performers has not disappeared, but it has changed. Though most people are rightfully horrified by the notion of lion taming from the past, the same cannot be evenly applied to other species now. This study illuminates how animal acts and categories came to be, and why animal subjects continue to captivate our emotions. In so doing, this project will expand the emerging fields of animal studies and environmental history by introducing a new framework for analysis based on animal lifecycles.