Nathan A. Howes and the Zoological Institute

Last time we looked at Hachaliah Bailey and the beginnings of the menagerie business in America. This week, we follow up with a bit of Bailey's protege and sometime partner Nathan A. Howes. Born in Brewster, New York in 1796, Howes got his start in the menagerie business by securing the partial rights to tour Bailey's elephant, Old Bet. He was among the earliest owners to tour with a regular circus troupe (starting in the 1820's) and was also among the earliest to tour under a canvas tent rather than a permanent amphitheater the way Philip Astley and other proto-circus performers had done. By 1826, he also ran an equestrian show with Aaron Turner as one of it's main riding acts presaging the merger of menagerie and equestrian act into the modern circus. 

Perhaps Howes' biggest contribution to the history of the circus, however, was the creation of the Zoological Institute in 1835 with his partner, Aaron Turner and his younger brother Seth B. Howes who would go on to circus fame of his own, especially in Europe. These three along with several other major menagerie owners bet at the site of Hachaliah Bailey's Elephant Hotel in January of that year and agreed to "more generally diffuse and promote the knowledge of natural history and gratify rational curiosity," through touring their menageries, all, of course, while making a tidy profit. This meant buying up most of the exotic and wild animals imported into the United States through their menagerie and headquarters in New York City and leasing them to anyone who wanted to tour the animals for a tidy profit. 

In addition, the Zoological Institute turned its attention towards controlling the routes that menageries traveled, often through fear and intimidation. More than a few rival troupes who refused to buckle to the Institute's monopoly or were too small to pay the Institute's fees found their equipment mysteriously burned or otherwise destroyed. 

Many of the Zoological Institutes monopolistic aims were later adopted by the Flatfoots, often confused for being one and the same due to the Institutes use of the phrase "on that I put my foot down flat" after dictating their terms of business. While the Institute lasted only two years, formally disbanding in 1837, the Flatfoots, which included many of the same menagerie owners (thus making untangling the history of the two even more complicated) persisted until 1842 and were reformed from 1863 to 1878 as a coalition of circus owners.

 Next week, we'll return to the equestrian side of things with John Bill Ricketts, the first man to bring his Astley style show to the United States.