What can oral history reveal about fairground life that conventional archives cannot? In conversation with three retired showwomen, historian Véronique Faber and filmmaker Alexandra Rice recorded memories of work, family life and skills learned through practice. Together with Nele Wynants, they reflect on what happens when women remember their working lives collectively – and on how oral history can preserve traces of a mobile and performative culture that might otherwise be lost.

It might be hard to image for generations that grew up with the Sinksenfoor, but 150 years ago, people could learn something new at the yearly funfair. With her project Science at the Fair, Nele Wynants and her team research how itinerant showpeople and museums played an important role in the circulation and popularization of science, knowledge, and visual culture. In so-called anatomical cabinets, zoological and anthropological museums and scientific theatres, itinerant showpeople demonstrated "wonders of nature" and spectacular scientific developments at the annual funfair. Many of today’s…