Humpty Dumpty circus

Before the days when TVs and computers brought the world into our homes, people anxiously waited for the world to come to them when the traveling circus rolled into town.

 

Bob Cline, a volunteer at the International Circus Hall of Fame museum in Peru, Indiana, recalls the arrival of the circus in his town as a “day of excitement, intrigue, curiosity, and, of course, thrills, spills, and chills. The towns closed down so everyone could go watch the trains or wagons arrive and unload. Watching the circus go up in the morning is part of the magic. Seeing a field full of grass, weeds, and even flowers become a tented city in a matter of a couple hours is something you can’t really understand until you actually see it.”

 

Albert Schoenhut immigrated to America from Germany with a knowledge of building sturdy toys. In 1872, he started his own company in Philadelphia, creating circus sets and other dolls and toys handcarved out of wood. His company produced Humpty Dumpty circus sets like this one between 1903 and 1935. The figures featured innovative rubber elastic joints to make animals “come alive.” Children could re-create what they saw under the “big top” tent, staging their own elaborate programs using horses, tigers, elephants, and giraffes, as well as clowns, acrobats, lion tamers, and horseback riders.