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Kathy Maher, executive director and curator of the Barnum Museum, will offer a lecture, “The Life and Legacy of P.T. Barnum,” at the Easton Public Library next Thursday. The talk will cover the varied career of Barnum.
“Ms. Maher’s presentation will explore the multi-faceted P.T. Barnum – businessman, entertainer, philanthropist and politician – and bring his spirit back to life,” the Historical Society said in a press release. “His name alone conjures up the imagination with ideas both spectacular and extravagant.”
Barnum is best known as the co-founder of the “Greatest Show on Earth,” a traveling circus with oddities from around the world. But he was also a key politician and philanthropist for the area. He was elected Bridgeport’s mayor and a Connecticut state legislator. He was instrumental in the founding of Bridgeport Hospital and served as its first president.
“Barnum uncovered a world of curiosity and, in doing so, discovered the curious, offered the superlative and invited the controversial,” Maher wrote in an essay on the museum’s website. She continues, “Although Barnum was considered extreme in his methods, a concept at times still shared today, he must be acknowledged and credited with significant contributions to the face of American entertainment, and the art of making entertainment great.”
Maher’s lecture begins Thursday, May 9, at 11 a.m. at the Easton Public Library. The lecture is free, but donations are welcome. For more information about this and future events, visit the society’s website, email hseastonct@gmail.com or call 203-261-2090.
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