William Washington Cole (1847-1915) began "W. W. Cole's Colossal Circus" in 1871 in Quincy, Illinois. In 1904 Cole sold his circus to Canadian showman Martin Downs and his son, James, the name became "Cole Bros. Circus." After the Depression almost shut it down, in 1934 two veteran circus managers -- Jesse Adkins (1886–1940) and Zack Terrell (1879–1954) -- teamed up to save it and acquired the Cole Bros. name and formed a circus that rivaled Ringling Bros., touring by railroad throughout the country.
The poster pictured here is advertising the August 27-30, 1943, visit of the Cole Brothers Circus to Seattle, where they set up in today's Mount Baker neighborhood at a location "7 blocks south of the Ball Park," (the ball park refers to Sick's Stadium, which was at Rainier Ave S and S McClellan St). The circus came to town "aboard a mile long train of double-length steel cars transport the 1,019 members of the circus family, including many noted stars from war-torn Europe, three great herds of performing elephants, hundreds of menagerie animals and other hundreds of horses and ponies."
In the lower left corner of the poster is a reminder, during wartime, to buy savings bonds and stamps. In the fall of 1940, the U. S. Treasury Department started planning a voluntary War Bond program to help pay for involvement in World War II. A massive public relations campaign equated buying bonds with patriotic duty, and more than 85 million Americans purchased bonds totaling $185.7 billion.
Caption information source: "Cole Bros. Circus Photographs," Indiana Historical Society, https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/cole-bros-circus-photographs.pdf Caption information source: "Cole Brothers Circus Opens Here Friday," The Seattle Times: August, 26, 1943, p.27
ID Number: 1975.6159.3.12
Date: 1943
Physical Description: 1 poster : color ; 41.5 x 36.25 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
