October 6, 2014 / by

MWDL Blog Post:

Clowns in the Mountain West Digital Library

Dark slate background with "MWDL" in blue boxes above "Mountain West Digital Library" in white text. A blue wave design is at the bottom.

Clowns! Does the idea of clowns fill you with happy thoughts of your childhood visit to the circus, or do you have Coulrophobia or the fear of clowns? Are the clowns in the MWDL happy or terrifying? Let’s find out!

It will be no surprise that the Mountain West Digital Library has photographs of rodeo clowns.

Black and white photograph of a rodeo clown in the late 1930s wearing sunglasses and holding a children's doll.
Rodeo Clown (late 1930s) from the Uintah County Library Thorne Photograph Collection.

This clown photo from the Scottsdale Public Library is rather adorable:

Color photograph of two rodeo clowns in the 1995 Parada del Sol Parade in Arizona.
Clowns in the 1995 Parada del Sol Parade, from the Scottsdale (AZ) Remembers: Recollections of our Past collection via the Arizona Memory Project

This clown looks very very sad:

Black and white photograph of a sad circus clown with his foot propped up on a stump.
Circus Clowns P.1 From the Utah State Historical Society Classified Photograph Collection

Here is a clown musical band!

 

Black and white photograph of Clown Musical Band. A handwritten caption on the bottom reads, Clown Band. Searchlight, Nevada. July 4, 1906.
Clown Musical Band, from the University of Nevada Las Vegas Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years Collection

What happened to this student at the University of Nevada Reno? Did she make it to Clown College? It looks like she would be a perfect candidate for clown-related higher education.

Black and white photograph of Betty Dittmer, a University of Nevada Reno business major who planned to attend Clown College. Dittmer wears a striped shirt, tall socks and roller skates.
Betty Dittmer, business major who planned to attend Clown College, from the University of Nevada Reno Campus Images collection

Have we inspired any clown related Halloween costumes? What’s your favorite clown photo from a digital collection?

Tags: , , , , , ,