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This is the earliest of this design I have found. Chris Berry shared this a while back as being a 14" x 22" window card that was used in 1914. As you go to the next poster, you'll see the design has been re-worked but the principal design is still there. Once again, you just have to be thrilled with the incredible artistry that went into the creation of these lithographs over the years.
1 comment:
This poster was first used for May Wirth I think in 1913 on Barnum and Bailey.
I had been a fan of this and the later Ringling litho used in 1918 of her. Years ago I had asked Harold Dunn if he had an extra of either of these to sell, which he didn't. I asked him about the drawing of her in the 1913 Barnum and Bailey litho with the long hair style, rather then her with the shorter hair and the larger bow. In his letter, he said that Strobridge had worked from a early photo of her when she was on the Wirth's Circus in Australia when she was much younger. He didn't know how they got her name wrong or if it had been changed. In the 1913 B&B litho it is "Mae Wirth" and in the later Ringling litho it is "May Wirth". If anyone has a copy of the Strobridge forms from B&B in 1912 or Ringling in 1917, I would be interested to know if May had any lithos the first year on B&B or when she returned to Ringling in 1917.
She would later be in a 1925 Strobridge litho of her family act and then have her own litho again when she returned to her own act and not the family act in 1926.
p.j.
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