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williamsburgers1 OP t1_iv8ifl5 wrote

Doing a reno in my apt. Found this on a wall. Building is from the 1860s. Unsuccessfully tried to find out what it was. Based on another poster next to it, looks like it’s from the 1880s.

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dhdhdfjffjj t1_iv8jkre wrote

There is a blog where the dudes dig up old advertising building billboards, forgot the name now but search around building billboards might turn something up. While not directly related they may know someone who can help I’d it

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ooouroboros t1_ivdpayg wrote

Must be from a "dime museum" - kind of like combination museum of curiosities and theatrical 'freak shows' like what later would be sideshows in the circus or Coney Island. There would be a stage where the 'performers' would do their thing. Also this might be seen as an early form of Vaudeville which did not exist yet in the 1860s.

Barnum's Museum (which predated when he took his show on the road as a 'circus') was like a super-size version of a dime museum.

I wonder if that wall in your picture was once an exterior wall - does not like the kind of thing people would glue to their room like that unless someone much later than the 1860's put that up on their wall.

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