The Braathens, Sverre and Faye, were active and avid circus fans and collectors. Sverre’s passion for circus began in the early 1900s when he was a boy waiting for and later watching the Gollmar Brothers Circus unload, parade, and perform on the Great Plains in the small town of Mayville, North Dakota.
Sverre mixed his love of music with his love for circuses and began collecting circus music material. Through the years, his collection grew to include route books, business materials, periodicals, massive amounts of correspondence between all levels of circus personnel – from band members to performers, riggers to roustabouts. Every season found the Braathens following circuses throughout the upper Midwest and it was while following circuses that his photographic talents emerged.
These images were captured in the saturated colors of Kodachrome slides and date from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. They provide insight to what happens just outside the canvas flaps of the circus tent. Take a look:
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| A clown band in Mamas in the Park, a production number |
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| Pinito Del Oro, Spanish aerialist |
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| Cyclists on high wire |
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| Performers on spectacle float |
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| Performers in wardrobe |
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| Nina Karpowa, German aerialist |
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| A clown in aerial ballet webb sitter wardrobe |
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| Carmen Slayton in blue aerial ballet wardrobe |
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| Karl and Helen Wallenda, husband and wife, in their private dressing wagon with flowers from fans |
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| The elephants in the spec on hippodrome track |
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| William Hanlon, clown in spec wardrobe |
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| Performers on high wire |
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| Mildred Keathley, aerialist and Mary Jane Miller, production girl |
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| Albert White, a clown in The Good Old Times spec wardrobe |
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| Sandy Marlowe, production girl and cub lion |
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| Yellow cage with clown band |
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| La Norma (Fox), aerialist |
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| Albert White, clown in spectacle wardrobe |
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| Circus personnel with a baby gorilla |
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| Maude Moore, performer on horse |
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| Louis Nagy, a good clown in pink Circus Serenade wardrobe |
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| Pinito Del Oro, Spanish aerialist |
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| Frank Cromwell, clown head against the sky |
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| Alzanas high wire act with green capes |
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| Blutch Landolph, clown |
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| Clyde Beatty Circus |
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| Performers in wardrobe |
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| Lou Jacobs, German clown and Pat Cartier, aerialist |
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| Performers on high wire |
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| Clown on stilts |