Miniature circus zebra balancing. Image credits Wikimedia Commons
As Jennifer Lemmer Posey, Tibbals’ curator of the circus, said in her 2024 interview with Florida State University News, he had loved circuses since childhood and was fascinated by their logistics and storytelling. Howard Tibbals began working on his circus model at age 17, which would be about 1953, according to The Ringling Circus Museum Teacher Guide. As Sarasota Magazine wrote in March 2022, Tibbals began working on the model in 1956, when he was 19 or 20. Tibbals spent more than 60 years building the model, which NC State Magazine says contains over 45,000 pieces, according to Sarasota Magazine. The museum’s page describes the model as made up of more than 42,000 pieces in more than 3,800 square feet, while NC State Magazine reports more than 45,000 pieces. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that it premiered at the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. A profile of Janice Tibbals on The Ringling’s site says she and Howard married in 1991 and worked together to install the model in venues around the country. It further indicates that their donations were made in 2000 and 2008, respectively, with the state matching their donations to fund construction of the two phases of the Tibbals Learning Center. He and his wife, Janice, donated $6.5 million to fund the initial building and endow the circus program, according to The Ringling’s tribute to Tibbals. The center opened in 2006. The Greatest Show on Earth Gallery opened on April 6, 2024, with Posey as the head curator, according to Florida State University News. The museum’s page mentions that the gallery focuses on the period that started in 1967 when Irvin Feld bought Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and lasted for fifty years under the supervision of the Feld family.
The information on the Ringling page states that visitors can witness the engineering involved in moving the entire “tented city” of the circus from town to town every day, as well as have a backstage look into the life of those who worked in the circus. His passion predates the model itself. Nevertheless, the official project occurred a bit later. Florida State University News calls the model a bird’s-eye view of a circus of the early twentieth century. The model did not begin in Sarasota. Additionally, the Tibbals Endowment was formed by their gift, providing funds for the preservation of the circus collections and staffing and programming. The Florida State University News states that Tibbals gave his name to the museum’s building, catalogued his collection of circus memorabilia, and helped install the model. The museum continues growing and developing. Additionally, Florida State University News provides more information about The Ringling as the State Art Museum of Florida and a part of Florida State University, and adds that Posey collaborated closely with Tibbals while studying as a graduate student and working for more than twenty years at the museum. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
