Unfairness at the Funfair: The French Syndicate for Travelling Showpeople in the Long Nineteenth Century

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe article explores the historical significance and agency of itinerant showpeople, a marginalised and frequently overlooked community, in the late 19th century. Focusing on the French Chambre Syndicale Patronale des Voyageurs Forains (CSPVF) and its journal Le Voyageur Forain, this study sheds light on the struggle of showpeople to safeguard their economic interests, counter societal prejudices, and gain respectability in society. The CSPVF, Europe’s first employers’ association of this kind, played a pivotal role in supporting itinerant entrepreneurs. By analysing the CSPVF’s organisational structure, professional networks, and efforts at integration, the article underscores the socio-economic dynamics of the era and between individuals positioned at the perceived centre and periphery of society. Drawing on union periodicals, the study examines the CSPVF’s objectives and internal dynamics, the initiatives aimed at professionalising the itinerant showpeople’s trade and its influence on economic policies. Additionally, the research explores the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion encountered by showpeople within and outside their community and their strategies to combat stigmatisation while seeking respectability. By addressing these themes, the article contributes to a broader understanding of labour history, syndicalism, and the interplay of social identity and economic pressures in the itinerant entertainment industry during the late nineteenth century.KEYWORDS: Itinerant showpeoplefunfairstigmatisationemployers associationrespectability AcknowledgementI want to thank the two reviewers, and my colleagues Nele Wynants, Elisa Seghers, Ilja Van Damme and Hilde Greefs for their valuable feedback.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Le Voyageur Forain (VF), 1883, no.1.2. Musée de la vie wallonne, Foires et forains en Wallonie: magie foraine d’autrefois. (Liège: Pierre Mardaga, 1989), pp. 11–39; Vanessa Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity: Community, Women and Language in Showland Society, from 1890 to the Present Day, 1997, Chapter 3; Nic Ulmi, ‘La Culture Du Champ de Foire’, 1995, pp. 18–26.3. Sofie Lachapelle, Conjuring Science: A History of Scientific Entertainment and Stage Magic in Modern France, 2015, pp. 3–12; Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity, Chapter 3.4. Kurt Vanhoutte and Nele Wynants, ‘Magie En Wetenschap in de ­spektakelcultuur van de Negentiende Eeuw: Henri Robin in de Lage Landen’, Tijdschrift Voor Mediageschiedenis 20, no. 2 (2017), pp. 37–38.5. VF, 1895, no.290.6. Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity, Chapter 4; G. H Jansen, Een roes van vrijheid: kermis in Nederland (Meppel: Boom, 1987), pp. 66–68; Musée de la vie wallonne, Foires et forains en Wallonie, pp. 28–29.7. VF, 1893, no.187; VF, 1893, no.191; VF, 1893, no.234; Matthieu de Oliveira, ‘Négoce et territoire: les passeports nordistes au XIXe siècle (1791–1869)’, Revue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine 48–2, no. 2–3 (2001), pp. 104–5.8. VF, 1893, no.187; VF, 1893, no.191.9. Claire Zalc, ‘Contrôler et Surveiller Le Commerce Migrant, Nomades, Forains et Ambulants à Paris (1912–1940)’, in Police et Migrants: France 1667–1939, ed. Marie-Claude Blanc-Chaléard et al., Histoire (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2015), pp. 365–88; Wim Willens and Leo Lucassen, ‘Roma’, in: Matthew J. Gibney and Randall Hansen, eds., Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present (Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2005), pp. 526–27; Leo Lucassen, Wim Willems, and Annemarie Cottaar, ‘Introduction’, in Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups, by Leo Lucassen, Wim Willems, and Annemarie Cottaar (London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1998), pp. 11–12.10. See, e.g.: ‘Science at the Fair’, www.scifair.eu; Nele Wynants, ‘Wetenschap Op de Kermis. De Verspreiding van Technologie, Kennis En Spektakel in Belgische Provinciesteden Tijdens Het Fin-de-Siècle’, Volkskunde, no. 1 (2020), pp. 1–33; Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity; Most research on funfairs comes from outside academia, see e.g.: Musée de la vie wallonne, Foires et forains en Wallonie.11. Literature on itinerant showpeople comes mainly from outside academia, e.g.: Jacques Garnier, Forains d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, un siècle d’histoire des forains, des fêtes et de la vie foraine. (Orléans, 1968); Max Rosseau, De boeiende geschiedenis van enkele kermisnijveraars en de Gentse foor (Gent: Drukkerij Sanderus, 1960); The only exception is Toulmin’s work: Vanessa Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity; see also on the lack of research: Lucassen, Willems, and Cottaar, ‘Introduction’, 1.12. Becky Taylor and Jim Hinks, ‘What Field? Where? Bringing Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History into View’, Cultural and Social History 18, no. 5 (2021), pp. 629–50; Leo Lucassen and Wim Willems, ‘The Weakness of Well-Ordered Societies: Gypsies in Western Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and India, 1400–1914’, Review (Fernand Braudel Center) 26, no. 3 (2003). pp. 283–313; Leo Lucassen, Wim Willems, and Annemarie Cottaar, Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1998); Serge Jaumain, ‘Un Metier Oublie: Le Colporteur Dans La Belgique Du XIXe Siècle’, BTNG|RBHC XVI, no. 3–4 (1985), pp. 307–56.13. Zalc, ‘Contrôler et Surveiller Le Commerce Migrant, Nomades, Forains et Ambulants à Paris (1912–1940)’; Leo Lucassen, ‘Eternal Vagrants? State Formation, Migration and Travelling Groups in Western Europe 1350–1914’, in Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups; Leo Lucassen, ‘“Harmful Tramps”. Police Professionalization and Gypsies in Germany, 1700–1945’, Crime, Histoire & Sociétés/Crime, History & Societies 1, no. 1 (1997), pp. 29–50; Annemarie Cottaar and Wim Willems, ‘Justice or Injustice? A Survey of Government Policy towards Gypsies and Caravan Dwellers in Western Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, Immigrants & Minorities 11, no. 1 (1992), pp. 42–66.14. Mark Neuendorf, ‘Keeping the Light Shining: The National Asylum Workers’ Union Magazine and the Print Culture of British Trade Unionism, ca. 1912–14’, Victorian Periodicals Review 54, no. 1 (2021), pp. 114–15; On the lacune of trade journals as source material see e.g.: Tony Grace, ‘The Trade-Union Press in Britain’, Media, Culture & Society 7, no. 2 (1985), p. 233; Arthur Marsh and J. G. Gillies, ‘Trade Union Journals Revisited’, Industrial Relations Journal 14, no. 2 (1983), pp. 52–53.15. Danièle Fraboulet, Quand les patrons s’organisent: Stratégies et pratiques de l’Union des industries métallurgiques et minières 1901–1950, Histoire et civilisations (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2020), p. 17; Marie-Geneviève Dezès et al., ‘Patronat et Syndicats à La Fin Du Xixe Siècle En Allemagne, En France et En Grande-Bretagne’, in L’invention Des Syndicalismes: Le Syndicalisme En Europe Occidentale à La Fin Du XIXe Siècle, ed. Friedhelm Boll, Antoine Prost, and Jean-Louis Robert (Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 1997), pp. 255–68; J. A. McKenna and Richard G. Rodger, ‘Control by Coercion: Employers’ Associations and the Establishment of Industrial Order in the Building Industry of England and Wales, 1860–1914’, The Business History Review 59, no. 2 (1985), pp. 203–31; John Benson, The Penny Capitalists: A Study of Nineteenth-Century Working-Class Entrepreneurs, 1983, pp. 2–3; Eric L. Wigham, The Power to Manage: A History of the Engineering Employers’ Federation (London: Macmillan, 1973), p. 311.16. A. Martinelli, ‘Employers’ Associations’, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, ed. Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, 1st ed (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2001), 4485; W. Streeck, ‘Labor Unions’, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 8214; ‘Syndicalist Movement. Worldwide 1890s-1920s’, Neil Schlager, ed., Saint James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide: Major Events in Labor History and Their Impact., vol. 1 (Detroit: St. James Press, 2004), pp. 283–84; Jacob H. (Jacob Harry) Hollander, Studies in American Trade Unionism (New York, H. Holt and Co., 1912), pp. 185–217.17. The entertainment industry or itinerant showpeople are not mentioned in reference works such as Schlager, St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide. Recently some sedentary entertainment industry associations have been investigated: Martin Cloonan, ‘Negotiating Needletime: The Musicians’ Union, the BBC and the Record Companies, c. 1920–1990’, Social History 41, no. 4 (2016), pp. 353–74; Martin Cloonan and Matt Brennan, ‘Alien Invasions: The British Musicians’ Union and Foreign Musicians’, Popular Music 32, no. 2 (2013), pp. 277–95; Angèle David-Guillou, ‘Early Musicians’ Unions in Britain, France, and the United States: On the Possibilities and Impossibilities of Transnational Militant Transfers in an International Industry’, Labour History Review 74, no. 3 (2009), pp. 288–304; Marie-Ange Rauch, ‘L’Union des Artistes: du groupement associatif à la création d’un syndicat des artistes interprètes’, in Syndicats et associations: Concurrence ou complémentarité?, ed. Danielle Tartakowsky and Françoise Tétard, Histoire (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2015), pp. 55–65; Christophe Charle, ‘Des artistes en bourgeoisie. Acteurs et actrices en Europe occidentale au xixe siècle’, Revue d’histoire du XIXe siècle. Société d’histoire de la révolution de 1848 et des révolutions du XIXe siècle, no. 34 (1 June 2007), pp. 71–104; Benson, The Penny Capitalists, pp. 65–68.18. Woodruff D. Smith, Respectability as Moral Map and Public Discourse in the Nineteenth Century, 1st ed. (Routledge, 2017), pp. 1–2 and 106.19. Lucassen, Willems, and Cottaar, Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups, pp. 60, 88, 128–29, 171–73, 175.20. E.g: surgeons, pharmacists, engineers, factory-workers, the police, cigarmakers, printers, and musicians. See: Thomas Brante, ‘The Professional Landscape: The Historical Development of Professions in Sweden’, Professions and Professionalism 3, no. 2 (2013); Maria Malatesta, Professional Men, Professional Women: The European Professions from the 19th Century until Today (SAGE, 2010); David-Guillou, ‘Early Musicians’ Unions in Britain, France, and the United States’, pp. 295–96.21. Keith Mann, Forging Political Identity: Silk and Metal Workers in Lyon, France 1900–1939, 1 (Berghahn Books, 2010), pp. 34–35.22. Schlager, St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide, 1:ix – x; Pierre Karila-Cohen and Blaise Wilfert-Portal, Leçon d’histoire Sur Le Syndicalisme En France (Paris, 1998), pp. 14–15 and pp. 43–44; Michel Dreyfus et al., ‘Les bases multiples du syndicalisme au xixe siècle en Allemagne, France et Grande-Bretagne’, in L’invention des syndicalismes, pp. 269–84.23. VF, 1895, no.283; Lucassen, Willems, and Cottaar, ‘Introduction’, p. 2.24. Lucassen, Willems, and Cottaar, Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups, pp. 128–29; Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity, chapter 3 and 4.25. VF, 1883, no.1, VF, 1883, no.3.26. VF, 1881, no.1.27. VF 1883, no.2.28. Possibly the owner of wax museum Buiron. He was not a member but had a subscription.29. VF 1890, no.11.30. VF, 1894, no.260.31. ‘Die Anfänge: 1882–1890’, Süddeutscher Schaustellerverband, accessed 12/06/2023, http://sueddeutscher-schaustellerverband.de/die-anfange-1882–1890/.32. ‘Schaustellerverband Berlin e.v’., accessed 12/06/2023, https://www.schaustellerverband-berlin.de/schaustellerverband-volksfeste.html; Hamburger Abendblatt- Hamburg, ‘Schaustellerverband Hamburg von 1884 e.v’., accessed 12/06/2023, https://www.abendblatt.de/adv/winterdom/article107593299/Schaustellerverband-Hamburg-von-1884-e-V.html.33. ‘Die Anfänge: 1882–1890’.34. Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity, Chapter 3 and 4.35. Franco Della Peruta and Elvira Cantarella, Bibliografia dei periodici economici lombardi: 1815–1914 (FrancoAngeli, 2005), pp.171–72; Lucassen, Willems, and Cottaar, Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups, p. 128; Musée de la vie wallonne, Foires et forains en Wallonie, 39–40.; VF, 1894, no.236.36. The only exception is Vanessa Toulmin’s work on the British Showmen’s Guild: Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity, chapter 3 and 4. I have a book chapter planned on these various associations.37. Le Temp, 23/04/1887; VF 1889 no86; VF, 1894, no.268; Charles Malato, Les forains (Paris: Gaston Doin, 1925), p. 295.38. VF, 1883, no.1; VF, 1904, no.752.39. Some attractions are difficult to label into petite/grande banque. The remaining attractions are labelled ‘Unknown/other’ such as joyrides, cinema and photography booths (8%).40. As some attractions are difficult to label into petite/grande banque. The remaining attractions are labelled ‘Unknown/other’ (23%).41. L’Avenir Forain 1904, no.1 ; VF, 1904, no.752; Comète Belge, 01/06/1913.42. VF 1891, no142.43. VF, 1885, no18; VF, 1885, no21; VF, 1885, no28; VF, 1886, no.30; VF, 1886, no.33; VF, 1892, no.169.44. It is unclear if this number contains owners and all their personnel.45. CSPVF’s active membership grew gradually from 154 in 1883 to around 290 in the 1890s and back to 260 in the early 1900s. The membership lists in the VF were published irregularly and seem to not always have been complete. See e.g.: VF, 1883, no.1; VF, 1892, no.169; VF, 1892, no.175; VF, 1895, no.287; VF 1904, no.753.46. Vincent Cardon and Mathieu Grégoire, ‘Les syndicats du spectacle et le placement dans l’entre-deux-guerres’, Le Mouvement Social 243, no. 2 (2013): 21; Rauch, ‘L’Union des Artistes’; Charle, ‘Des artistes en bourgeoisie. Acteurs et actrices en Europe occidentale au xixe siècle’.47. Mann, Forging Political Identity, pp. 34–35; Neuendorf, ‘Keeping the Light Shining’, p. 115.48. Research on employers’ associations is very limited in comparison with that on labour unions. See e.g.: Neil H Ritson, ‘Employer Associations: Collective Bargaining, Services and Power in Historical Perspective: The Case of the EEF in the UK’, Labor History 61, no. 3–4 (2020), p. 286; Michael Barry and Adrian Wilkinson, ‘Reconceptualising Employer Associations under Evolving Employment Relations: Countervailing Power Revisited’, Work, Employment and Society 25, no. 1 (2011), pp. 150–52; Martinelli, ‘Employers’ Associations’, 4485–88; Dezès et al., ‘Patronat et Syndicats à La Fin Du Xixe Siècle En Allemagne, En France et En Grande-Bretagne’; Arthur J. McIvor, Organised Capital: Employers’ Associations and Industrial Relations in Northern England, 1880–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996), pp. 15–16; McKenna and Rodger, ‘Control by Coercion’, 204; Wigham, The Power to Manage, p. 311; Jean-Louis Robert, Antoine Prost, and Chris Wrigley, eds., The Emergence of European Trade Unionism (New York: Routledge, 2018), Trade unions and socialism; Richard W. Gable, ‘Birth of an Employers’ Association’, Business History Review 33, no. 4 (ed 1959), pp. 537–39.49. VF, 1883, no.1.50. David-Guillou, ‘Early Musicians’ Unions in Britain, France, and the United States’, 289, 295 en 300.51. VF, 1911, no.1137. Another example is: VF,1894, no.274.52. VF, 1895, no.283.53. VF, 1889, no.86; VF, 1904, no.771; VF, 1904, no.782.54. VF, 1890, no.115.55. VF 1888, no.63.56. VF, 1892, no.175–177.57. Robert, Prost, and Wrigley, The Emergence of European Trade Unionism, Trade unions and socialism.58. VF, 1892, no.175–176; VF, 1894, no.238.59. Smith, Respectability as Moral Map, 72.60. VF, 1891, no.141.61. Smith, Respectability as Moral Map.62. VF, 1885, no.19.63. VF, 1883, no.4; VF, 1884, no.5; Le Temps, 23/04/1887, no.9484.64. VF, 1899, no.514.65. Eva Andersen, ‘A Republic of Alienists? A Transnational Perspective on Psychiatric Knowledge Circulation across Europe (1843–1925)’ (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 2021), pp. 87–88; Hilde Greefs, ‘Clubs as Vehicles for Inclusion in the Urban Fabric? Immigrants and Elitist Associational Practices in Antwerp, 1795–1830’, Social History 41, no. 4 (2016), p. 382.66. VF, 1892, no.169 supplément.67. VF, 1886, no.32; VF, 1887, no.54; VF, 1889 no.100; VF, 1890, no. 118–124; VF, 1890, no.127; VF, 1894, no.273–278.68. A small percentage of women was CSPVF member. An article on the role of women entrepreneurs with Nele Wynants is forthcoming.69. VF, 1890, no.117.70. VF, 1883, no.4; VF, 1885, no.18; VF, 1885, no.21; VF, 1885, no.25; VF, 1889, no.95; VF, 1889, no.98; VF 1889, no.102; VF, 1890, no.106; VF, 1890, no.110; VF, 1890, no.114; VF, 1890, no.117; VF, 1890, no.121; VF, 1891, no.142; VF, 1899, no.517.71. VF, 1885, no.21.72. VF, 1891, no.139.73. ‘Othering’, Steve Bruce and Steven Yearley, The Sage Dictionary of Sociology (London: SAGE, 2006), pp. 22–23.74. Lucassen and Willems, ‘The Weakness of Well-Ordered Societies’, p. 290.75. VF, 1892, no.176.76. Le petit parisien, 20/02/1911.77. Thomas Acton, Gypsy Politics and Social Change: The Development of Ethnic Ideology and Pressure Politics among British Gypsies from Victorian Reformism to Romany Nationalism, International Library of Sociology (London: Routledge, 1974), pp. 78–80; Lucassen, Willems, and Cottaar, Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups, pp. 128–30; Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity, chapter 3 and 4.78. Smith, Respectability as Moral Map, p. 31.79. Smith, Respectability as Moral Map, pp. 141–42.80. ‘Saltimbanque’. Pierre Larousse and Claude Augé, Nouveau Larousse illustré: dictionnaire universel encyclopédique, vol. 7 (Paris: Larousse, 1898), p. 509; ‘Bateleur’. Pierre Larousse and Claude Augé, Nouveau Larousse illustré, vol. 1, 774; ‘Charlatan’. Pierre Larousse and Claude Augé, Nouveau Larousse illustré:, vol. 2, p. 704.81. VF, 1884, no.8.82. VF, 1884, no.8; VF, 1886, no.30.83. Laurel Brake and Julie F. Codell, ‘Introduction: Encountering the Press’, in Encounters in the Victorian Press: Editors, Authors, Readers, ed. Laurel Brake and Julie F. Codell, Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), pp. 1–2.84. David Cressy, Gypsies: An English History, First edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), ‘The Eye of the Press’ (ebook); Jodie Matthews, ‘Mobilising the Imperial Uncanny: Nineteenth-Century Textual Attitudes to Travelling Romani People, Canal-Boat People, Showpeople and Hop-Pickers in Britain’, Nineteenth-Century Contexts 37, no. 4 (2015), pp. 365.85. VF, 1890, no.117; VF, 1892, no.164; VF, 1894, no.245; La Dépêche de Brest, 28/07/1893.86. Gil Blas, 15/01/1894.87. Brake and Codell, ‘Introduction: Encountering the Press’, pp. 1–2.88. Le Petit républicain du Midi, 31/08/1902; Le Petit républicain du Midi, 16/09/1902.89. VF, 1889, no.104; VF, 1884, no.16; VF, 1887, no.41; Jean-François Tétu, ‘L’illustration de la presse au xixe siècle’, Semen. Revue de sémio-linguistique des textes et discours, no. 25 (2008).90. Le Petit Haut-Marnais, 18/06/1906.91. ‘Othering’, Bruce and Yearley, The Sage Dictionary of Sociology, pp. 22–23.92. VF, 1887, no.54.93. VF, 1887, no.54.94. Smith, Respectability as Moral Map, p. 68.95. Journal du Loiret, 31/05/1891; VF, 1891, no.141–143.96. VF, 1891, no.142.97. VF, 1891, no.143; Journal du Loiret, 13/01/1892.98. Journal du Loiret, 13/01/1892.99. VF, 1892, no.157; VF, 1892, no.158.100. Toulmin, Fun without Vulgarity, chapter 4.101. Le Petit Haut-Marnais, 18/06/1906.102. Smith, Respectability as Moral Map, 116; Harry Oosterhuis, ‘Cycling, Modernity and National Culture’, Social History 41, no. 3 (2016), pp. 233–48.103. VF, 1893, no.210; VF, 1894, no.247; L’Intransigeant 1894, no.4995; Le vélo, 1893, no.500.104. VF, 1893, no.210.105. VF, 1885, no.20; VF, 1888, no.61; VF, 1891, no.152; VF, 1900, no.553–554.106. VF, 1885, no.20.107. VF, 1903, no.742.108. e.g. VF, 1885, no.18; VF, 1887, no. 41; VF, 1888, no.58; VF, 1889, no.90; VF, 1891, no. 137.109. VF, 1885, no.26.110. VF, 1911, no.1146; Le Petit Parisien, 20/02/1911; Christophe Delclitte, ‘La catégorie juridique «nomade» dans la loi de 1912’, Hommes & Migrations 1188, no. 1 (1995), pp. 23–30; Emmanuel Filhol, ‘Le discours républicain sur les «nomades» (1908–1912): les cas d’Étienne Flandin et de Marc Réville’, Ethnologie française 48, no. 4 (2018), pp. 687–98.111. Robert Schwartz, Ian Gregory, and Thomas Thevenin, ‘Spatial History: Railways, Uneven Development, and Population Change in France and Great Britain, 1850–1914’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 42 (2011), pp. 59 and 64–65.112. VF 1892, no.164.113. La Dépêche: journal quotidien, 04/02/1887.114. e.g.: VF, 1881, no.1. The word ‘chemins de fer’ is present 2515 times across 773 issues while the word ‘voyageur forain’ is present 4837 times and is overrepresented due to it being part of the syndicate’s and journal’s name. Application: AntConc.115. VF, 1903, no.751; VF, 1890, no.118; VF, 1892, no.164.116. VF 1885, no.20; VF1886, no.29; VF 1886, no.33.117. VF, 1887, no. 41–43; 1892, no164; VF, 1892, no. 162. VF, 1902, no.683–684; VF, 1892, no. 162.118. VF, 1890, no.116–122; VF, 1891, no.146; VF, 1891, no.148; VF, 1892, no.157; VF, 1892, no.162; VF, 1892, no.164; VF, 1903, no.726; VF, 1903, no.732.119. VF, 1890, no.129; VF, 1891, no.145.120. VF, 1891, no.148; VF, 1905, no.807; VF, 1890, no.118; VF, 1891, no.146; VF, 1891, no.144; VF, 1891, no.146; Émile Pianet, Tarifs généraux et spéciaux concernant les transports par chemins de fer du matériel forain (Morand, 1898).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the European Research Council [948678].Notes on contributorsEva AndersenEva Andersen is a postdoctoral researcher on the EU-funded project ‘Science at the Fair: Performing Knowledge and Technology in Western Europe, 1850-1914’ (www.scifair.eu). Her current research focuses on the social and professional networks of itinerant showpeople and explores the various social and practical aspects of their profession. She obtained her PhD in history at the Center for Contemporary and Digital History at the University of Luxembourg. Her areas of expertise and research interests are the history of knowledge, history of science and digital history.