concept

A crowd of people have gathered to watch two men performing on a table in front of a tent; children are peeping through the canvas from the side. Lithograph by Engelmann after S. Baptiste, 1827.

Japanese Tommy : the celebrated negro comedian and burlesque prima donna, the most wonderful specimen of black humanity in existence, thirty-five years of age, and only thirty-six inches high, "The Tom Thumb of Africa", will appear at each presentation.

Richard Tarlton, a comic actor. Stipple engraving by S. Harding, 1792, after himself.

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Richard Tarlton, a comic actor. Stipple engraving by S. Harding, 1792, after himself.

A crowd of people have gathered to watch two men performing on a table in front of a tent; children are peeping through the canvas from the side. Lithograph by Engelmann after S. Baptiste, 1827.

Japanese Tommy : the celebrated negro comedian and burlesque prima donna, the most wonderful specimen of black humanity in existence, thirty-five years of age, and only thirty-six inches high, "The Tom Thumb of Africa", will appear at each presentation.