O n V i e w M a g a z i n e . c O M • O c t O b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 5 00

P H O T O G R A P H S

F R E D E R I C K W H I T M A N

CIRCUSGLASIER

10.16.15-11.22.15

@F S U M U S E U M o f F I N E A R T S ,

Ta l l a h a s s e e • w w w . m o f a . f s u . e d u

O n v i e w

Frederick Whitman Glasier,

Pete Mardo (detail), 1923.

Images are from the

Collection of The John and Mable

Ringling Museum of Art,

the State Art Museum of Florida,

Florida State University.

AA T T H E T U R N O F T H E 2 0 t h C E N T U R Y I N A M E R I C A , the circus was an unmatched social spectacle. Large circus companies were like mobile cities, requiring an enormous staff to install and break down operations every few days. At their peak, circus companies toured more than 150 cities and towns each year, playing to more than two million people over a seven month season. Frederick Whitman Glasier: Circus Pho-

tographs, at FSU Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahasee, will fea-ture more than 60 photographs of Frederick Whitman Glasier, who photographed the circus and served as an official photog-rapher for the Barnum & Bailey and other major circuses of the day. Glasier’s unrestricted access to both grand performances and back yard life allowed him to explore the public and pri-vate personalities of some of the greatest entertainers of the era.

Freder i ck Whi tman Glas i e r : CIRCUS PHOTOGRAPHS

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Maude Banvard,

The Catch,

Brockton Fair,

Massachusetts,

1907.

Glasier’s great strength was as a portraitist, and his photo-graphs reveal an intimate con-nection with the circus and sideshow performers. “Glasi-er’s photographs are not only extraordinary historical docu-ments of the circus during its heyday, they are ultimately about the people themselves, said Peter Kayafas, co-curator of the exhibition and director of the Eakins Press Foundation. “His great talent and his unusu-al personal relationship with the practitioners of the circus yielded many intimate, reveal-ing portraits, so that even 100 years later, we feel like we are in the presence of these amaz-ing people.”

The exhibition is arranged to chronologically illustrate the

event of the circus coming to town. Lithographic promotional posters would vividly announce upcoming performances, with hyperbolic claims about the spectacular events soon to unfold. Examples of these post-ers are juxtaposed with Glasi-er’s photographs that document the arrival of the circus, from the excitement of parades that would take over small towns, to the setup of the massive big top tent, which could hold more than 12,000 people.

Glasier photographed circus performers captured in the midst of their acts such as the Deike Sisters, a gymnastic family known for “contortional clev-erness and muscular control in artistic bending.” He also cap-tured a split-second moment in

00 O n V i e w M a g a z i n e . c O M • O c t O b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 5 O n V i e w • m a y 2 0 1 0 00

Above:

Frederick W. Glasier,

(1866-1950), ca. 1927.

Opposite:

Miss May Lillie, 1908.

“Glasier’s photographs are not only extraordinary historical documents of

the circus during its heyday, they are ultimately about the people themselves.”

—Peter Kayafas, exhibition co-curator

Freder i ck Whi tman Glas i e r : CIRCUS PHOTOGRAPHS

00 O n V i e w M a g a z i n e . c O M • O c t O b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 5

a trapeze aerial act by the Fly-ing Banvards in the photograph, Maude Banvard, The Catch, Brockton Fair (1907).

“He was travelling a lot with the artists and thus could build this wonderful relationship,” said Deborah W. Walk, Tibbals curator at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and co-curator of the exhibition. “He had this intimate look that not everyone was able to capture.”

A 1914 portrait of Chief Iron Tail, a star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, captured the strength and dignity of the last survivor of the Battles of Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee. His photograph of Made-

moiselle Octavia (ca. 1901), known as the “Yankee Snake Charmer,” has a sensual aspect as snakes writhe over Octavia’s form-fitting, sleeveless out-fit. Charmion, Strong Woman (1904), is a bold image of a par-tially disrobed circus star whose muscular poses challenge ideas of feminine beauty and physical strength. Pete Mardo (1923), is a portrait of Peter Guckeyson, who ran away from home and joined the circus to become a traditional white-faced clown under the name Pete Mardo.

Frederick W. Glasier was born on March 5, 1866, in Adams, Massachusetts, to parents Henry and Lucy Ann

This page (top to bottom):

The Deike Sisters*, ca. 1910;

Chief Iron Tail, ca. 1914.

Opposite:

Mademoiselle Octavia,

Snake Charmer, ca. 1901.

*Image not included in exhibition.

Freder i ck Whi tman Glas i e r : CIRCUS PHOTOGRAPHS

Glasier. Prior to starting his career in photography, Glasier worked as a town clerk and textile designer in his home-town. By 1890, Glasier moved to Brockton, Massachusetts, and later opened the Glasier Art Studio and Museum. From his residence, Glasier worked, exhibited his photographs, and sold copies of his prints. By 1900, Glasier took publicity photographs for major circus-es and Wild West shows. He had traveled out West and was greatly influenced by William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Per-formers had their photographs taken by Glasier, which they later sold to their fans. While Glasier took scenic shots of the circus and portraits of circus performers for commercial sale, he also documented the daily life of the traveling circus and Wild West show. Glasier also gave public lectures on his pho-tographs to increase his income. The talks that Glasier gave were lantern slide lectures that used his photographs—hand tinted by his wife. These lectures were designed around his pho-

tographs of Native Americans, the circus, and the history of the Pilgrims.

Glasier used three 8 x10” King view cameras to which he added a Thornton-Pickard focal plane shutter with a speed up to 1/3,000th of a second (just a lit-tle longer than today’s camera flash speed and quicker than it takes to blink your eyes!). Glasier also used a Coerz Celor lens on a 5x7” Graflex with an accordion-line pleated focus-ing hood, as well as a postcard Kodak camera. With all this equipment, Glasier is said to be a master of the “action shot,” capturing an image of an object or person in motion.

After over fifty years as a professional photographer, Glasier retired and spent his time wood carving, or “whit-tling” as he called it. He died on July 28, 1950, in Brockton, and was buried in his home-town of Adams, MA. Accord-ing to Kayafas, Glasier should be regarded not only as a gifted circus photographer, but also among the greats of American photography. On View

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Opposite:

Mademoiselle Scheel

with Lions, ca. 1905.

The Frederick Whitman Glasier:

Circus Photographs

exhibition is loaned by the

John and Mable

Ringling Museum of Art,

the State Art Museum of Florida,

under the administration of

Florida State University.

This traveling exhibition was

co-curated by Peter Kayafas

and Deborah W. Walk

in 2008 from the holdings

of The Ringling.

The companion volume,

Circus: The Photographs of

Frederick W. Glasier won the

AAM 2009 Frances Smyth-

Ravenel Prize for Excellence in

Publication Design.

Freder i ck Whi tman Glas i e r : CIRCUS PHOTOGRAPHS