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Brenda Assael

Brenda Assael

Dr. Brenda Assael is an academic historian and the author of The Circus and Victorian Society (University of Virginia Press, 2005) and The London Restaurant, 1840-1914 (Oxford University Press, 2018). She is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London and is currently writing a monograph about the Victorian explorer and big game hunter, Samuel White Baker.
Sangers Circus Performers

Vintage Circus Photos from the Sanger Circus Collection

In Victorian England, the circus appealed across an otherwise class-divided society, its audiences ranging from poor peddlers to prestigious public figures.