In 1949, LIFE magazine sent famed photographer Nina Leen to document the daily life of a sassy troupe of young women who had run off and joined the famous Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, Fla. What developed was a portrait of a sisterhood formed over acrobatics that mixed high-flying wire acts with fashionable high-waisted shorts. Sarasota was once considered “the home of the American circus”. Here: an aerialist smoking while rehearsing for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, FL in 1949. (Photo By Nina Leen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

An elephant enjoys its back being scrubbed by the keeper on March 1, 1950. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

An Afghan woman clad in burqa begs in a snow-covered street in Kabul, Afghanistan on January 7, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

Wax figures, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Donald Trump and Taylor Swift, in the entrance line at Madame Tussaud's in London on July 30, 2020, as the attraction prepares to reopen to the public following the easing of lockdown restrictions in England. (Photo by Kirsty O'Connor/PA Images via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Duluth International Airport, Wednesday, September 30, 2020, in Duluth, Minn. (Photo by Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

British model Jean Shrimpton at London Airport (now Heathrow), 5th June 1967. (Photo by Dove/Express/Getty Images)

Children wave Vietnamese and American flags while waiting for arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama (not pictured) before a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam May 23, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

A rickshaw driver looks out the windshield as he drives onto the highway in Mardan, Pakistan January 30, 2017. (Photo by Fayaz Aziz/Reuters)