One of my favourite go-to blogs, the Retronaut, posted some vintage circus photography set around the same historical timeperiod of the world I’ve set my book, Pantomime, within (late Victorian, though some photos are newer). I’d already written the book by the time these photographs went up on the blog, but they helped cement the atmosphere in my mind when I started editing again. My favourites are re-posted below. I’ve captioned the images after some of the characters that they remind me of.
Aenea on the tightrope
Nina the Snake Charmer
Karla the Equestrienne
Drystan the White Clown
Aenea The Aerialist
Aenea and Micah
- Aenea and Micah in the Big Top
Did you read Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children? That’s inspired by old photos like these, although in that case it’s freaks rather than circus performers.
In that first photo it looks like she’s got a really lung-squishing corset on. I can picture her running out of oxygen and fainting at the top of her tightrope in that getup.
I did read it last month, and I enjoyed it, aside from some minor quibbles.
They used to make costumes look as much like street clothes as possible–sometimes people did actually perform in streetwear, to try and make it look less salacious. Or, if there was a poster of them in their aerialist uniform, they’d have a little cameo portrait that was very proper and formal. Quite funny, considering the costumes are all quite modest by today’s standards.