Pictured: The Historic Circus Galleries at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of The Ringling.

Tickets are now on sale for the newly expanded Ringling Legacy Tour, debuting February 1 at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. An educational walking tour of the campus that tells the story of John and Mable Ringling through guided visits to the Ca’ d’Zan, Bayfront Gardens, and the Museum of Art, this latest expansion welcomes the Historic Circus Galleries into the narrative, now beginning the tour by shedding light on John Ringling’s earliest years in Sarasota.

“For the first time, we’re able to give a lot more breadth and depth to John Ringling’s circus years,” says Jane Harris, Museum Education and Training Specialist at The Ringling. “So visitors on the Legacy Tour can really get the whole picture of who these people were and what they did.”

Housed within the Circus Museum, the Historic Circus Galleries display artifacts, posters, portraits and even entire train cars in a series of exhibitions exploring the impact and day-to-day reality of circus life with the Ringlings. See the White Ticket Wagon, built in 1911 and greeting visitors at the entrance just as it would have a century ago. See the Ringling Family Galleries, historic hand-painted banners, and the elaborate circus wagons, gilded and bright, that carted everything from exotic animals to old canvas tents from town to town.

Visitors can even take a peek inside the traincar of John Ringling himself, built in 1905 then purchased and restored by The Ringling in the early 2000s, which includes bedrooms, bathrooms, and an observation lounge. “Absolutely opulent,” says Harris. “It really represents what luxury travel was like in the early 1900s, as John Ringling is hitting the pinnacle of his success.”

After starting at the Historic Circus Galleries with a discussion of Ringling’s circus years, the Ringling Legacy Tour proceeds to the Bayfront Garden to see Mable Ringling’s famous Rose Garden and explore the natural environment, then to the Compass Rose in front of the Ca’ d’Zan for a conversation about architecture, before finally closing at the Museum of Art.

“These beautiful venues all tie together in this wonderful story of who John and Mable Ringling were,” says Harris, “and also their vision for Sarasota.”

Tickets are on sale now.

Pictured: The Historic Circus Galleries at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of The Ringling.

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