Cirque

1912 · 53602 — New York: H.N. Tiemann Co. 4 East 30th St. March 1912. One silver gelatin photo. 7.5 x 8.5 in. w/ embossed photographer’s stamp at lower left corner pencil annotations on verso of photo 1 corner w/ very slight loss still VG image with bright strong contrast. This image depicts the famed Renaissance Revival structure based on the Moorish Giralda Tower in Spain at Fifth & Madison Ave. in March 1912. Designed by Stanford White for McKim Mead & White this historic venue included the largest amphitheater in America equipped with a tank for aquatic shows a rooftop theatre cabaret restaurant and concert hall. The Cleopatra spectacle featured 1500 performers including the African-American minstrel troop organized by James Wolfscale featuring his three sons and the rest of the musicians mounted on camels playing their instruments. The show which ran from March 23 - April 22 1912 is perhaps best remembered for the widely reported suffrage rally held by 75 women circus performers of the world’s first “Circus Suffrage Society†and notably snubbed by the socialite Suffrage Movement leaders including Harriet Stanton Blatch. Led by Josie De Mott a bareback trick rider acrobat Zella Florence and included women animal trainers wire walkers hand balancers dancers acrobats and the renowned female Hercules -- Katie Sandwina. This Madison Square Garden was demolished in 1924 after the New York Life Insurance Co. which held the mortgage built their landmark Cass Gilbert-designed New York Life Building and another Madison Square Garden venue was opened on 8th Ave. between 49th and 50th. See: Guide to the H.N. Tiemann & Co. Photograph Collection 1880-1916 New York Historical Society 2013; Abbot & Seroff Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows pp. 166-169; Circus Activism: Barnum’s Female Stars Demand Right To Vote Name Baby Giraffe ‘Miss Suffrage’ at Madison Square Garden Bowery Bows 2012. H.N. Tiemann Co., [4 East 30th St.], unknown