Manuscripts - Barnum Museum

The manuscript collection encompasses hand-written material and other items that relate to hand-written material. Correspondence collections, and a 700+-page copy book of Barnum’s letters from France in the mid-1840s, form the major portion of the sub-collection. There are also individual manuscript items, as well as several decorative “blank” journals that belonged to P. T. Barnum, with sample pages of the fine engravings in them. Also present is a stereotype printing plate used to print a hand-written Barnum letter and examples of letterhead stationery.