(Image of Astley's Amphitheatre, above, courtesy of the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London)Phillip Astley, the only known depiction of him: Handbill for Astley's British Riding School, Westminster Bridge: Here is the Thom…

Above and below we see two posters for Ricketts' Circus, during periods when he was resident in New York City in the 1790s (from the collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University). Note the depictions of the Flying Mercury trick, as well as…

As promised, here is an image of the Old Theatre, or the Southwark Theatre, which stood for many years on Cedar Street (now South Street) in Philadelphia. It caught fire in 1821, and was mostly destroyed, but it was somewhat rebuilt and used and a w…

For the first installment, there's no bibliography or photos to share with you yet, since the purpose of this episode was to talk generally about the plans for the podcast and to whet your appetite for things to come in future episodes. But I'll exp…