Becoming Tom Thumb: Charles Stratton, P.T. Barnum, and the Dawn of American Celebrity

The remarkable rise of the world’s first global celebrity. As part of Connecticut’s America 250 celebration, explore how Bridgeport-born Charles Stratton - later famously known as General Tom Thumb - and Connecticut showman P.T. Barnum transformed entertainment and helped shape the modern concept of celebrity.

Join award-winning author Eric Lehman for a look at this extraordinary partnership. Long before film, television, or social media, Barnum and Stratton created a cultural phenomenon that captivated audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and helped define celebrity as a powerful force in the rapidly emerging world of popular entertainment.

Drawing from his acclaimed book Becoming Tom Thumb, Lehman tells the story of Charles Stratton and the legendary showman who transformed him into an international sensation. From Barnum’s American Museum to the royal courts of Europe, their partnership helped establish a new public fascination with fame, performance, and personality. Tom Thumb became a worldwide attraction, charming presidents, captivating royalty, and drawing crowds wherever he appeared - demonstrating that modern celebrity was already taking shape in the nineteenth century. Lehman traces how Tom Thumb and P.T. Barnum redefined the boundaries of fame itself, and how their story continues to resonate in contemporary culture.

Eric Lehman is the author or editor of twenty-three books. Becoming Tom Thumb received the Henry Russell Hitchcock Award and was selected by the American Library Association as one of the year’s outstanding university press books.