# Stuart Thayer > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Stuart_Thayer > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Stuart_Thayer.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Thayer > Source revision: 1317384631 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American historian}} {{Infobox person | name =Stuart LeRoy Thayer | image =Stuart Thayer.png | image_size = | caption = Thayer in Paris in 1984 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|3|27}} | birth_place =[Ann Arbor, Michigan](/source/Ann_Arbor%2C_Michigan), US | death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|6|24|1926|3|27}} | death_place = | alma_mater = [University of Michigan](/source/University_of_Michigan) | occupation = [Historian](/source/Historian) and author | spouse = Boyka Thayer }} '''Stuart LeRoy Thayer''' (March 27, 1926 – June 24, 2009) was a historian of American circuses.{{cite news |title=It's only fitting that the governors and the circus parade come together |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=MWSB&p_theme=mwsb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB82BCE6833DCAE&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |work=[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel](/source/Milwaukee_Journal_Sentinel) |date=July 26, 1998 |access-date=2010-03-11 }} ==Biography== Stuart Thayer was born on March 27, 1926, in [Ann Arbor, Michigan](/source/Ann_Arbor%2C_Michigan), to Louise and Lyle O. Thayer (1901-1968). Thayer served in [World War II](/source/World_War_II) after which he graduated with a degree in literature from the [University of Michigan](/source/University_of_Michigan). He operated an insurance agency in Ann Arbor until his late 40s, when he retired to devote the remainder of his life to documenting the history of the American [circus](/source/circus). He began writing articles on circus history in ''[Bandwagon](/source/Bandwagon_(magazine))'', the journal of the [Circus Historical Society](/source/Circus_Historical_Society), in the late 1960s, one a piece on [Ringling](/source/Ringling_Brothers_Circus) cages co-authored by [Richard Conover](/source/Richard_Conover), then the leading student of American field shows. His first major work was ''Mudshows and Railers'', an account of the 1879 circus season based mainly on a close reading of the ''[New York Clipper](/source/New_York_Clipper)'', the industry's trade paper, and metropolitan dailies. The first of his three groundbreaking books on the history of the American [Circus](/source/Circus) before 1860, ''Annals of the American Circus'', came out in 1976. It was the first extensively researched, comprehensive account of the ante-bellum American circus, obsoleting virtually all previous secondary work on the subject. He later co-authored books with fellow historians [Fred Dahlinger](/source/Fred_Dahlinger) and [William L. Slout](/source/William_L._Slout), and continued to publish in ''[Bandwagon](/source/Bandwagon_(magazine))''. ''Traveling Showmen'', his masterpiece, was published in 1997. The distillation of his thirty years of research, the book analyzed the economic and operational aspects of pre-[Civil War](/source/American_Civil_War) circuses. A companion volume on the performance and performers appeared in 2006. At the time of his death, he was finishing a biography of [Adam Forepaugh](/source/Adam_Forepaugh), the late 19th century circus manager. Thayer died in [Seattle, Washington](/source/Seattle%2C_Washington), on June 24, 2009. He was survived by his wife Boyka, son Preston, stepdaughter Katherine Davis, stepson Jon Davis, and grandchildren Amin, Nilofar, Aydan, and Thayer.{{cite news |title=One man's death |url=http://seattlepostglobe.org/2009/07/09/beyond-the-blogs-one-mans-death |work=[Seattle Post Globe](/source/Seattle_Post_Globe) |date=July 9, 2009 |access-date=2010-03-11 }} ==Publications== * “One Sheet,” Bandwagon 18, no. 5 (1974): 23. *[https://books.google.com/books?id=yXyMGwAACAAJ&dq Annals of the American Circus: 1830-1847] (1976) *[https://books.google.com/books?id=23sKHQAACAAJ&dq A capsule history of the Washtenaw County farm] (1976) with [Rhonda Barnat](/source/Rhonda_Barnat) * “The Keeper Will Enter the Cage: Early American Wild Animal Trainers,” Bandwagon 26, no. 6 (1982): 38. *[https://books.google.com/books?id=at8OAQAAMAAJ&dq Annals of the American Circus: 1793-1829] (1986) * “The Elephant in America Before 1840,” Bandwagon 31, no. 1 (1987): 20-26. * “The Elephant in America, 1840-1860,” Bandwagon 35, no. 5 (1991): 34-37. *[https://books.google.com/books?id=o-YOAQAAMAAJ&q Annals of the American Circus: 1848-1860] (1992) *[https://books.google.com/books?id=R2QwkBigrmoC&dq Grand Entree: The Birth of the Greatest Show on Earth, 1870-1875] (1997) with [William L. Slout](/source/William_L._Slout) *[https://books.google.com/books?id=CWvNPQAACAAJ&dq Traveling showmen: the American circus before the Civil War] (1997) *[https://books.google.com/books?id=KdR-AQAACAAJ&dq Badger State showmen: a history of Wisconsin's circus heritage] (1998) with [Fred Dahlinger](/source/Fred_Dahlinger) ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *[https://classic.circushistory.org/Thayer/Thayer.htm Stuart Thayer's American Circus Anthology] {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Stuart}} Category:20th-century American historians Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:1926 births Category:2009 deaths Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:20th-century American male writers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Stuart Thayer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Thayer) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Thayer?action=history)). 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