[1] Previously Barnum had a museum at a fixed location in New York City and the traveling circus allowed him to bring his curiosities to more paying customers.

He and Dan Castello formed a partnership that had a show travel by boat in 1869, visiting the ports of the Great Lakes.

[3] In the second quarter of 1876, he returned to the US and formed a new partnership with Charles Reiche to build the New York Aquarium, which opened on October 11, 1876.

From 1884 to 1890, Coup was involved with Wild West shows and trained animal exhibitions.

[citation needed] He developed a train-based traveling museum called Enchanted Rolling Palaces in 1891.