This photograph of the Barnum & Bailey midway shows “Zip The Whatisit?” playing his violin. Zip is believed to have first started working for P.T. Barnum in 1857 – and continued to perform as a sideshow attraction until his death in 1926.
The photograph was taken by Frederick Whitman Glasier probably about 1910. The original glass negative is at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.
-Chris Berry