Gen. Tom Thumb’s three years’ tour around the world, accompanied by his wife,

Lavinia Warren Stratton, Commodore Nutt, Miss Minnie Warren, and party. New York : S. Booth, printer [1872]. Octavo, original pictorial yellow wrappers with later paper backing (some chipping and loss), 144 pp, illustrated, small loss to margin of pp 93-94 (not affecting the text), otherwise the contents sound and clean. Scarce.

American stage performer General Tom Thumb (real name Charles Sherwood Stratton) and his touring party of ‘little people’ visited Australia in 1871. Stratton, under promoter P.T. Barnum, to whom this account is dedicated, had become not only one of the world’s most famous circus attractions but also one of the most popular and successful identities of the nineteenth century theatre. In Australia, he and his companions gave performances in Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne, Ballarat, Launceston, Hobart and Sydney. The Australian experiences of the touring party are recounted in this narrative by Stratton’s manager, Bleeker, who took a particular interest in Australian Aboriginal culture, the illustrations including a portrait of Victorian Aborigines and a depiction of a night time corroboree in South Australia.

Copies are recorded in four Australian collections (Monash University Library; National Library of Australia; Randwick City Library; State Library of New South Wales).