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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would first like to thank Kathy Maher, director and curator of The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Her generosity with the extensive collections of Tom Thumb and P. T. Barnum materials was invaluable. Adrienne Saint Pierre’s help at the museum made my research a pleasure to look forward to. Of course Mary Witkowski and Elizabeth Van Tuyl at the Bridgeport History Center were extremely helpful as always, guiding me through this astonishing storehouse of the city’s illustrious past. I must also thank Rebecca Dowgiert at the Magnus Wahlstrom Library at the University of Bridgeport for her help with the archives, as well as Nancy Gedraitis and Gladys Beals at the Middleborough Historical Association. And starting this book would have been especially difficult without the researchers who had come before me, in particular A. H. Saxon, Neil Harris, Michael Chemers, Alice Desmond, and P. T. Barnum himself, who began the process by collecting newspaper articles on “The General” in the 1840s, and while recording his own life included numerous anecdotes that would otherwise have been lost. I would also like to thank my editors, Parker Smathers and Susanna Tamminen, as well as Marian O’Keefe, Thomas Juliusburger, Darryl Brock, Rachel Paschael, David and Trena Lehman, designers Christian Lutin and Melissa Matos, and all the others who assisted with this book.

And special thanks to my wife Amy Nawrocki, whose critical poetic eye, passionate wisdom, and unwavering support for my writing and research has made this possible.