Hello, one more circus stamp tonight. This cost me another cup of coffee!  

Perhaps if you are from the USA you will know of this circus. A new one to me and how interesting. 

The Hagenbeck Wallace circus traveled around the US in the early part of the 1900s. It began as the Carl Hagenbexh Circus in the mid 1880s. Hagenbeck was an animal trainer who pioneered the use of rewards based training as opposed to fear based. 

The circus merged with another run by Bejamin Wallace around about 1907. After that it has a sad history with the loss of animals in the in the 1913 Wabash flood and then in 1918 in what has become known as the Hammond Circus Train Wreck.  Plenty of material is available if you want to read more.

Anyway, a nice stamp I think.  Enjoy your stamps and all the history they commemorate.

Michael