William Cameron Coup

William Cameron Coup (August 4, 1836 – March 4, 1895) was a Wisconsin businessman who partnered with P. T. Barnum and Dan Castello in 1870 to form the "P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie and Circus". 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. Coup's innovations were the circus train to transport the materials from town to town.

Dan Castello suggested he work with P. T. Barnum. In 1870, Castello, Coup and Barnum created "P. T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Circus and Hippodrome" in New York City. Coup started to use rail transportation for the circus in 1872, against Barnum's judgement.

In 1874, Coup built the New York Hippodrome as a permanent amusement building. This fatigued him, and in 1875 he ended his partnership in the circus and moved to Europe.

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 . After a disagreement about opening on Sunday with Reiche, he sold his part at a loss. He then organized "The Equescurriculum" traveling show, which was enlarged yearly until 1879, when it became a consolidated circus as "The New United Monster Shows". In 1883, he established the Chicago Museum in the building then known as McCormick Hall. From 1884 to 1890, Coup was involved with Wild West shows and trained animal exhibitions. He lost most of his equipment in a train wreck near Cairo, Illinois in 1887. He developed a train-based traveling museum called Enchanted Rolling Palaces in 1891.

He died in Jacksonville, Florida on March 4, 1895.

Circuses W. C. Coup's Circus (1885–1889) W. C. Coup's Rolling Palaces Coup's Equescurriculum W. C. Coup's New United Monster Shows Coup's 10 Consolidated Shows