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Prepared from the source scan: surroundings removed and the sheet levelled where required. The source record remains available below.
The WPA & the Golden Age · The American Golden Age
Ringling Bros.: Crandall and His Riding Mule Thunderbolt
Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows, 1899
Format
Archival pigment giclée on museum-grade matte art paper, color-managed to the source scan — the flat inks and stone grain intact. The 40×60 is the room-changer.
Size
$39.00
What it is
An 1899 chromolithograph for Ringling Bros., billing Crandall and his comic burlesque equestrian act on his riding mule Thunderbolt; 106 by 72 cm.
Why it matters
In 1899 Ringling was a fifteen-year-old Wisconsin show, eight years from buying Barnum & Bailey.
What to notice
The joke is in the name: a mule called Thunderbolt.
The ring had room for a joke.
Provenance
- School
- The American Golden Age — the Poster before 1931 (United States)
- Format
- Theater poster
- Poster published
- Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows, 1899
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN 2002735830
Live trademark
Ringling Bros. — sold here as history, never adopted into this house’s own branding.
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-11-01.
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Painted Whiskers, our sister studio, will paint your pet in this school’s hand, after Harper's, May. See Yours Painted ↗