On our way through Sarasota, we decided to visit the Ringling Circus Museum. It's located on their original estate which includes their mansion and grave-site, a learning center, several gardens, a fine art gallery, and a theater for performing arts.
The first building we went into contained posters, costumes, performance props, and a huge scale model of the circus as it looked in 1920. There were over 40,000 tiny little figures.
Another building held circus equipment and parade wagons. This is the calliope that would run up and down the streets the week before the circus playing music to advertise upcoming ticket sales.
This is the original Human Canon. They had several video stations showing clips of performers using the different props. It's a little freaky to think of someone (actually 2 people together) being shot out of this contraption. They said the hardest part was making sure they landed in the net.
There were some interactive displays. Bruce tried to walk across the "high wire" (he fell off before he got to the end).
I tried to take a picture in front of a circus mirror.
We didn't get to walk down to the mansion, the Statue Courtyard or the Dwarf Garden, because it was pouring down rain when we left, but what little I saw looked very interesting. This turned out to be one of those places you could spend a whole day (as long as it isn't raining). Maybe I'll have to go back.
