Adams, Rachel. Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Bogdan, Robert. Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Brett, Mary and Stevan Gould. Freaks of the Sideshow and Film. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2015

Drimmer, Fredrick. Very Special People: The Struggles, Loves, and Triumphs of Human Oddities.  New York: Bantam, 1976.

Goldsack, Bob. A History of the Johnny J. Jones Exposition. Midway Museum Publications, 1990.

Hammer, Carl and Gideon Bosker. Freak Show: Sideshow Banner Art. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1996.

Hartman, Marc. American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History’s Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers. TarcherPerigee, 2006.

McKennon, Joe. A Pictorial History of the American Carnival. 1-2 and 3 vols. Sarasota, FL: Carnival Publishers of Sarasota, 1972, 1981.

Papas, Michael, and Meah, Johnny. Painters of the Peculiar: A Guide to Sideshow Banner Artists and their Respective Work. Michael Pappas Design, 2018. – A lavishly illustrated look at the unique work of sideshow banner artists, with perspectives on all of the major artists.  Includes a detailed bibliography and index.

O’Brian, Tim. Ward Hall: King of the Sideshow. Nashville, TN: Casa Flamingo Literary Arts; Illustrated Edition, 2014.

Osterud, Amelia Klem. The Tattooed Lady: A History.  2nd edition. Taylor Trade, 2014

Stencell, A. W. Girl Show: Into the Canvas World of Bump and Grind.  Toronto, Canada: ECW Press, 1972?

Stencell, A. W. Circus and Carnival Ballyhoo: Sideshow Freaks, Jabbers and Blade Box Queens. Toronto, Canada: ECW Press, 2010.

Stencell, A. W. Seeing Is Believing: America’s Sideshows.  Toronto, Canada: ECW Press, 2002.

Woolf, John. The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age.  London: Michael O’Mara, 2019.