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Discovering History The Circus

Discovering History The Circus by Paul Wolter & Beverly Vaillancourt, M.Ed design by PowerUp Design, LLC

images courtesy of the Sauk County Historical Society

Sauk County Historical Society 900 2nd Avenue PO Box 651 Baraboo, Wisconsin 53913 saukcountyhistory.org ©2023 Sauk County Historical Society Press Printed by Minutemen Press, Baraboo, WI, USA All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any means, electronic, recorded, or otherwise, without the express prior written consent of the Sauk County

Words to Know artifacts

Ringling Brothers Circus

Barnum & Bailey Circus

rival

Circus World

theatre

competitive

welfare

Corwin Moeller Harry Moeller Gollmar Brothers Circus James Bailey mansion Midwest P.T. Barnum Ringling Bros. 1

The Circus By the late 1800s there were many circuses in the United States. One of them was the Barnum & Bailey Circus. This circus began in 1881 as a business deal between P.T. Barnum and James Bailey. It was very popular for many years and even toured Europe in the early 1900s. The Barnum & Bailey Circus featured many horses, camels, elephants, music wagons, clowns, and a variety of circus acts. It had its own train cars for transporting the circus from one city to another. It was advertised as the Greatest Show on Earth. What do you think they meant by that?

Discovering History

Five Ringling brothers from Baraboo started a circus there in 1884. They called it the Ringling Brothers Circus. They traveled to small cities across the Midwest by wagon. By 1888 the Circus was traveling by train to larger cities. They called themselves the “Kings of the Circus World.” What do you think they meant by that? The circus business was very competitive. Every circus wanted to be the most successful circus. As the Ringling Bros. circus grew they bought smaller circuses and ran them separately or made them a part of their own show. 3

In 1907 the Ringling brothers purchased their largest rival, the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The Ringlings ran their own circus and the Barnum & Bailey Circus separately for several years. By 1910 The Ringling Bros. Circus had some 1000 employees, 335 horses, 26 elephants, 16 camels, and other animals. It traveled by train from city to city. All the animals needed to be loaded onto the train cars for travel. In 1919 the two circuses merged, becoming the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. They called it the Greatest Show on Earth. 4

The Ringling brothers were part of a large family. Their aunt and uncle, Gottlieb and Maria Gollmar, lived in Baraboo. They had fourteen children. Inspired by the Ringling brothers, four of the Gollmar sons started their own circus in Baraboo just seven years after the Ringling brothers. While the Gollmar Brothers Circus never grew to be as big as the Ringling circus it was still a large circus. Like the Ringling Bros. Circus, it returned to Baraboo each fall. Look carefully at the historic photo. When was the photo taken? What type of acts do you think were part of the Gollmar Brothers Circus?

Besides the Gollmars, the Ringlings also had cousins living in Baraboo named the Moellers. There were four Moeller cousins, two boys and two girls. The two boys were Henry and Corwin Moeller. They learned how to build wooden wagons with their father. After the Ringlings and Gollmars started their circuses, the Moellers would make circus wagons for them. Some of them were plain and some of them were fancy, like the bell wagon shown in the photo. 6

The circus was very successful! The Ringling brothers managed a circus empire. They employed over 1,600 people who all traveled with their circus. They worked well together and created the largest circus in the United States. Think about what it must have taken to move, feed, house, and watch over the safety of all of the circus performers and animals that were part of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus! That must have been a very big job! Elephants were always a big part of the circus. Sometimes they could be seen walking down the street in Baraboo!

The Ringlings in Baraboo The Ringlings were some of the richest people in Baraboo when they lived here. Al. and Lou Ringling built the largest home ever built in Sauk County. Their stone mansion featured stained glass windows, fine woodwork, electric lights and several bathrooms. Most people at this time did not have any running water in their house. The mansion even had a ballroom for big parties. Some of Al. Ringling’s brothers also built large homes in Baraboo but none was as big as Al.’s. Al. Ringling built a new theatre for Baraboo in 1915. The new theatre was built for live events like plays and musicals but could also show moving pictures (movies), something which was new at that time. The theatre was very elegant and cost over $100,000 to build. This would be about $2.5 million today. 8

Times Change Over the years ideas about circuses changed. Many people felt it was wrong to make animals perform day after day. They were concerned about the welfare of the animals. Many people stopped coming to the circus. It became harder and harder for the circus to make money. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus closed on May 21, 2017. Its final show was in Uniondale, New York. It had been a circus for 146 years. That is a very long time!

However, this is not the end of the story for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The circus reopened in 2023. However, animals acts are no longer part of the circus. Instead the circus offers special acts sourced from around the world, include high-flying acts. Just as in its beginning, the new Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus promises to be the “Greatest Show on Earth.” 9

Circus World Museum Today the history of the circus in Baraboo and around the United States is preserved at Circus World Museum. Circus World Museum opened in 1959 on the grounds of the original Ringling Brothers Circus Winter Headquarters. It has grown to have the largest collection of antique circus wagons and circus related artifacts in the world.

From the Past to the Future Circus World Museum also has live big top shows and other performances every summer to give visitors a circus experience.

Information about visiting and exploring Circus World Museum can be found at https://www.circusworldbaraboo.org/. Circus World Museum is located along the Baraboo River in Baraboo. It is open for six months every year. Thousands of people visit Circus World Museum each season to learn about the history of the circus, see the more than 250 restored circus wagons, walk through buildings that once was were the winter home of the Ringling Bros. Circus, and enjoy the circus live programming. 11

Think about It

• Open your History Journal. • Write the definitions of the Words to Know. • Write a paragraph sharing what you learned about the history of the circus. • Write two or three sentences about what people might have seen when Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus first became popular. • If you have been to Circus World, write a short paragraph about your visit. • Make a list of ten jobs needed to run a circus. • Add one interesting idea to your History Journal. Share your idea with someone else.

Projects • Find photos of old circus performances. Download and print them. Cut them into interesting shapes. Make a circus collage. A collage is a creative display of photos. You can find photos on the Sauk County Historical Society website at https://saukcountyhistory.org/photo-collections. Be sure to note the source of your photos in your collage. • Make a circus diorama. A diorama is a scene made inside a box. When you look in the box it’s like looking in a window of a store, but instead of store items there is a scene. Sometimes the lid of the box is used as part of the diorama. • Learn more about the Ringling Brothers. Who were they? Where did they live? What did they build? Choose one brother and write a report about him. • Go to the library and choose three books about the circus. Read each one. Then write a book review of one of the books. What did you like about it? What was especially interesting? What did you learn about the circus? • Visit Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Make a video about your visit and share it with others. • Think up a project of your own about the circus. What can you do to help others learn more about the circus? 13

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Baraboo, Wisconsin

Discovering History: The Circus