This advertisement for Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey features a circus performer in a cage with 8 tigers.The Ringling Bro and Barnum and Bailey Circus is a merger of P.T. Barnum’s Great Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrom and the Cooper & Bailey Circus. Cooper & Bailey eventually joined shows with P.T. Barnum in 1881. While Barnum & Bailey toured Europe, from 1897-1902, the Ringling Bros. began touring the eastern United States, where they gained immense popularity. They became the largest traveling entertainment phenomena. While most circuses travel by animal-drawn caravan, the Ringling Bros. were traveling by train. Bailey, shortly after, then took his show to west, to the Rocky Mountain area, where he passed away a year after arriving in 1905. The Ringling Bros. bought his circus shortly after.