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P.T. Barnum, Ringleader card art from Lost Chapters (Cobalt, Character)
Card art: P.T. Barnum, Ringleader

P.T. Barnum, Ringleader: Cobalt Character

P.T. Barnum (1810 to 1891) was an American showman from Connecticut who ran Barnum's American Museum in New York City and promoted the circus known as Barnum & Bailey. He was also a Connecticut legislator and mayor of Bridgeport, and he used hoaxes and human curiosities to draw crowds.

Cost
3 crystals
Type
Character · Free Spirit
Power / Health
2 / 3
Color
Cobalt (Thinkers & Dreamers)
Rarity
Uncommon
Set
Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)

On play: rest an enemy character. If you control The Circus, draw a card.

Showmanship pioneer whose blend of humbug, spectacle, and promotional genius transformed entertainment forever.

Real history

The real history

Phineas Taylor Barnum was born on July 5, 1810, in Bethel, Connecticut. In the early 1840s he bought Scudder's American Museum in New York City and renamed it Barnum's American Museum. It stood at Broadway and Ann Street and held wax figures, live animals, human performers and hundreds of thousands of objects. Barnum was a master of publicity, and he promoted hoaxes and human curiosities there, such as the "Feejee" mermaid.

His best-known performer was Charles Stratton, whom Barnum renamed General Tom Thumb when the boy was four. Barnum also served as tour manager for the singer Jenny Lind. Many of his exhibits presented people as curiosities, and historians and museums continue to look at that part of his legacy critically.

A fire destroyed the museum on July 13, 1865. Barnum reopened at a new location, which burned in 1868, and he then turned to the circus. His name lives on in the Barnum & Bailey circus, which advertised "the Greatest Show on Earth."

Barnum also had a public life in Connecticut. He served in the state legislature and as mayor of Bridgeport, where he led improvement projects including Seaside Park, and he helped found Bridgeport Hospital in 1878. He financed the building that became the Barnum Museum, which opened in 1893.

P.T. Barnum died in Bridgeport on April 7, 1891.

Sources

  1. P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), Connecticut History, CT Humanities
  2. Remembering P.T. Barnum's Pre-Circus Career on His Birthday, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
  3. P.T. Barnum Dies, Today in History, Connecticut History, CT Humanities
  4. About Us, The Barnum Museum

Checked against these sources on October 3, 2026. Spot a mistake? Report an error. How we check facts.

Game lore (invented)

In the game's story

In the game's invented story, P.T. Barnum arrives in Marginalia and within a week is selling tickets to it, with a striped tent and a show of "living legends." The Queen is unhappy and Captain Isguard is furious, so he changes the show: every performer is now paid and chose to be there, and arrivals tell their own stories on the stage. He says Marginalia is the first place where the truth draws a bigger crowd than the humbug.

In Lost Chapters' frame story, history's heroes fall into an invented world called Marginalia. That story is fiction; the history on this page is real.

How the card plays

P.T. Barnum, Ringleader costs 3 crystals and is a 2/3 Cobalt Free Spirit. When he enters play, rest an enemy character. If you control The Circus, draw a card.

Resting an enemy character is a small tempo swing on its own, and with The Circus on your side of the board he also replaces himself. Try to land the Location first and then Barnum. The Circus The Circus also gives your Free Spirits +1/+1, which turns Barnum into a 3/4. Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Beecher Stowe is a cheap Free Spirit that draws a card, so you can fill the board for the same boost. Crossing the Delaware Crossing the Delaware refreshes your characters and gives them +2/+0 and Swift, a strong finisher once the enemy has fewer ready blockers.

  • Playable in decks led by Martin Luther King Jr., Neil Armstrong, and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Cobalt.
  • In the Dr. King starter deck (1 copy). Deck code: LC2-BAABAQICAQMBBAEFAQYBBwEIAQkCCgILAQwBDQIOAg8BEAIRARICEwIUAhUBFgEXARgBGQEaARsBHAEdAR4B3v4
  • In the Armstrong starter deck (1 copy). Deck code: LC2-AQABAQECAQMBBAEFAQYBBwEIAgkCCgILAQwBDQIOAQ8BEAERARICEwIUARUBFgEXARgBGQEaARsBHAIdAR4BfQK1eQ
  • Works with The Circus.
  • A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.

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