The cornerstone of the Circus Museum is the world's largest miniature circus, The Howard Bros. Circus Model. The model is a replica of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1919 to 1938. It was created over a period of more than 50 years by master model builder and philanthopist Howard Tibbals.
Mr. Tibbals began toying with circuses at age 7, and when he was given a lathe and a jigsaw at age 12, he started making circus models. In 1956 while a student at North Carolina State University, he started sewing a replica of the six-pole Big Top tent that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus used in 1938. His pastime turned into a life-long passion in 1958 when he began to create the greatest model circus in the world.
The 3/4 inch to the foot scale replica Howard Bros. Circus has 8 main tents, 152 wagons, 1,500 circus performers and workers, 800 hand carved animals, 7,000 folding chairs, and a 57 car train, occupying 3,800 square feet in the museum. In total, the replica includes 42, 132 pieces, not including small pieces such as the thousand of railroad stakes. Everything can be packed up into the train cars, also individually hand crafted.
Mr. Tibbals asked Ringling management if he could use their name for his replica circus when he started building it, but they refused, so he called it The Howard Bros. Circus instead. It was first displayed at the Knoxville World's Fair in 1982. In 2004, he set up his circus at the Ringling Estate's Tibbals Learning Center, a building paid for by Mr. Tibbals, who made his fortune by inventing commercial wood flooring. It took him a year to set up his replica circus in its current location. Tibbals' wife once commented that she married a man who liked to play with dolls as much as she did. Tibbals readily admits that his circus will never be completely finished. He still works 20 hours weekly on the model - there are still 26 more Pullman sleeping cars needed!
This replica circus is one of the most extraordinary things I have ever seen.
