April 3rd is American Circus Day! This day commemorates the anniversary of the first circus performance in the United States, which took place on April 3, 1793 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For today, Jared letterpress printed the largest halftone that we have in our print shop at the Sacramento History Museum, which is a poster for the circus performer, Clyde Beatty. This halftone was made in the 1930s. This was printed with black rubber base ink using our Washington hand press. This halftone

On December 5, 1848, President James K. Polk announced in an address to Congress that gold had been found in California, accelerating the California Gold Rush. While most artwork at the time, including this halftone Jared printed for this video, depicted an older, bearded, rugged, Euro-American man as a typical gold miner, the California Gold Rush was actually the largest migration in human history. People from all over the world came to California in search of gold, including migrants from Aust