June 11, 2020
Howard Bros Miniature Circus
The Howard Bros. Circus
There are no “Howard Brothers” This is all the work of one man who spent over 50 years making an exacting 3/4″ to 1 foot scale replica of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus c. 1920s when they were still under the big top. When Howard Tibbals started building this in the late 1950s Ringling Brothers would not let him use their name. In 2004 the Ringling museum in Sarasota, FL purpose built a exhibition hall just to house it.
It is impossible to photograph in a way that does it justice. The 42,000 items include all the show elements, but also all the behind the scenes trappings that illustrate the challenge of moving and feeding the hundreds of people and animals and thousands of pieces of equipment from town to town.
