Ringling brothers circus

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, American circus that was the best-known traveling circus in the United States in the 20th and early 21st centuries. It had its roots in the circuses guided by P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, and the Ringling Brothers, which ultimately joined forces. It closed in 2017.

"To build up that relationship of trust between a handler and an elephant is absolutely sacred," says the circus' Director of Animal Stewardship.

Ringling Brothers, family of U.S. circus proprietors who created the Ringling Brothers circus empire in the late 19th century. They organized their first small circus in 1884. In 1907 they bought the Barnum & Bailey Circus, becoming the leading circus in the U.S., the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The Braathens, Sverre and Faye, were active and avid circus fans and collectors. Sverre’s passion for circus began in the early 1900s when h...

Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey circus program, 1952

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense…

It has been on the road since 1871. But the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus will shut down after its last show May 21.

When I was a little girl, nothing terrified me more than going to the circus, which for some reason, my family loved taking me to. Despite my pleads of, "Noooo, I don't want to!", which they probably thought were the pleadings and rantings of a bratty little girl (I wasn't bratty, I was a good girl). But, they were the pleadings of a very scared girl! Clowns, freaks, it was all horrific to me. I remember going to freak shows as a little girl and coming home traumatized. Now that I'm older…

Vintage Circus | Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus (1962)

Photographs chronicling the lives lived behind the scenes at the Ringling Brothers circus extravaganza in the late 1940s.