March 31, 2005 – Brookville, N.Y. – The days of daredevil entertainment under the big top and hoof-pounding Wild West shoot-outs are captured in a new on-line collection of memorabilia and literature at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville.

The Circus & Buffalo Bill Collection at the B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library contains dozens of rare, 19th century posters, programs, books, magazines and correspondence from Phineas T. Barnum and William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody.

“The circus brought thrills and wonders, and even the bizarre, to towns across the country,” said Conrad Schoeffling, the special collections librarian at C.W. Post. “The Wild West shows indelibly implanted cowboys and Indians on the American consciousness, and were the ancestor of one of the most important genres in American film, the western movie.”

Elements of the collection have been posted on the C.W. Post Web site at:
http://www.cwpost.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/sc/circus/intro.htm. The collection can be viewed in person by appointment. All images may be used by permission only. Please contact Dr. Donald Ungarelli, Dean ofUniversity Libraries, at Donald.Ungarelli@liu.edu.

For further information, call the Special Collections Department at (516) 299-2880.