The History Behind the History Page

Fleawinder: Living Circus’s history page documents over four hundred years of real flea circuses — from Robert Hooke’s microscope sketches in 1665 to the Oktoberfest performers still working today. Writing it meant reading Victorian playbills, digitised newspaper clippings, and a surprising number of academic papers on entomological entertainment.

The hardest part was deciding what to leave out. Louis Bertolotto alone could fill a book (and he did — several, in fact). The compromise was a timeline that hits the major beats and a set of expandable sections for anyone who wants to dig deeper.

The page uses drop caps, ornamental dividers, and a serif typeface to echo the broadsheets and playbills it describes. Every section collapses by default so the reader isn’t overwhelmed, but the first paragraph is always visible with a drop cap to pull you in.

All text is available in English, Spanish, and German. The translation process surfaced some fascinating local history — German Flohzirkus traditions at Oktoberfest, for instance, have their own lineage distinct from the London and New York scenes.