NEDCC Executive Director Bill Veillette and conservator Bucky Weaver discuss the conservation treatment of the circus poster depicting "Little All Right, the Japanese Marvel," a featured act in the Forepaugh Circus. Weaver later discovered two and a half posters from the John B. Doris Circus pasted beneath this one.

Bucky Weaver removes a poster section from the wood after immersion in a water bath to soften the adhesive.

Superimposed sections of the hidden posters are separated in the same manner.

The poster sections are washed in filtered water to remove discoloration, acids, and old adhesive from the paper. They are then lined with Japanese paper and covered with a sheet of polyester film in preparation for piecing the poster back together.

Wet wheat starch paste allows time for freshly laid paper sections to be manipulated into place.

The reconstructed poster:
"Little All Right - The Japanese Marvel"

Two complete posters and fragments of another one from the Doris Circus were discovered beneath the "Little All Right" poster. This one promotes Ella Stokes, a famous bareback rider and acrobat.

A detail of the Ella Stokes poster.

The second hidden poster:

"John B. Doris' Great Inter-Ocean
Museum Menagerie and Circus,
the Largest and Best Show on Earth.
Acknowledged by all as producing
more and rarer features than all
other shows in America combined.
12 shows combined in one!"

Before treatment sections of a poster depicting a group of giraffes part of the "Great Forepaugh Show, Museum Menagerie, Triple Circus, and Roman Hippodrome."

This section of the giraffe poster shows the evidence of a different poster pasted underneath.

Fragments were gathered to be put back in place on the reassembled image.

Conservator Bryan Owen assists Bucky Weaver in piecing together a section of the poster as NEDCC's Director of Paper Conservation Walter Newman looks on.

The reconstructed giraffe poster

During treatment of the giraffe poster, one of the hidden posters is painstakingly uncovered.

After the poster is reconstructed, Shelburne Curator Kory Rogers identified the circus act:

"James Robinson, the Champion Rider of the World,"
a featured performer in the John B. Doris Circus.

For more information about the circus exhibit and Shelburne Museum, go to www.shelburnemuseum.org or call (802) 985-3346.