P. T. Barnum

Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810–1891) was an American showman, writer and politician. Born in Bethel, Connecticut, he began as a storekeeper and lottery agent, then made his name exhibiting the dwarf General Tom Thumb, managing the singer Jenny Lind's American tour and running the American Museum in New York, a mixture of curiosities, hoaxes and genuine exhibits that drew millions. In his sixties he founded the traveling circus that became Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth. He served in the Connecticut legislature and as mayor of Bridgeport, wrote a candid and much revised autobiography, and lectured on The Art of Money Getting on both sides of the Atlantic.