The FitzGerald Brothers' Circus: considering circus entertainments in late colonial New Zealand

My study of the vibrant, internationalist, and prolific entertainments presented in New Zealand by the FitzGerald Brothers’ Circus in the years 1887-1904, from which this essay is derived, challenges the historic relegation of circus to the frontier settlements or to the periphery of colonial society. The FitzGeralds were part of a group of elite entertainment organizations that employed advanced marketing and management strategies to entrepreneur major tours of the colony in this period. This essay aims, in some measure, to reclaim the position circus entertainment acquired in the cultural fabric of late colonial life, and in the cultural imaginary of the public of New Zealand during this era.