2 wild men of Borneo - Waino and Plutano

A group of men wearing blue sailors' uniforms brandish rifles and knives as they struggle to cast a net over a smaller man with long hair who is squatting on the beach next to another sailor's body and holding a piece of the sailor's torn leg. Another smaller man with long hair swings from a tree branch and seems to be reaching for a rope being tossed by a sailor below. To the back left a cage with wagon wheels holds two men who cling to the bars and to the upper right another tableau depicts a smaller man with long hair lifting a taller man in western dress straight up by his ankles. There are weights marked 300 and 400 beside him. A ship sits anchored on the horizon a short distance from shore. Text below states that Waino and Plutano [sic: Plutanor] were "captured only after a desperate conflict" and "though dwarfs in size these men exhibit great strength lifting many hundred pounds in weight."

This poster is one of many fine examples of circus posters printed by the Strobridge Lithograph Company of Cincinnati in the early 1880's when American entrepreneur and cultural icon P.T. Barnum first negotiated the merger of his circus to form "P.T. Barnum's and Great London Combined."

ca. 24 1/2" x 31"