Ringling Museum works to preserve circus history
SARASOTA, Fla. - The final chapter is now coming to a close for the Ringling Bros. circus. Its history will live on at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.
"The history will be preserved and be in a place where people can see it, enjoy it, and appreciate what an American institution this is," said Kenneth Feld, Monday morning.
"We have millions of photographs, thousands of posters lots of wagons," said Deborah Walk, the museum's assistant director of legacy in circus. She makes sure the past is persevered.
"It's celebrated here. The people are here. We have the epicenter of the American circus," she said.
Feld Entertainment has said it wants to preserve the circus' history -- and one of the places where artifacts may end up is the Ringling Museum.
There are already tens-of-thousands of pieces and the museum is ready to take in even more. It displays circus histories from across America and the world, but the Ringling Bros. circus makes up a majority of the collection.
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"We work with them a lot in wardrobe and we switch things out. We also work with them very closely in documenting all of the programs that they have and their routes," said Walk.
For decades, Feld has worked with the Ringling Museum to preserve its history.
"We've worked especially with the Ringling museum in Sarasota where they have many of our artifacts and we will continue to do that," said Kenneth Feld.
In a matter of a few months, the museum may have a flood of new artifacts to preserve.
"If we got a lot of props and a lot of wardrobe we found find room to make sure we could incorporate them into the stories that we have right now," said Walk.
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