Revelers young and old have been reliving the thrill of the circus finally coming to town by collecting circus memorabilia – and the hobby continues to be on the rise, even if circuses themselves seem like a thing of the past.

“Collecting circus items remains a vibrant and colorful hobby, especially paper products—photographs, posters, literature, business records—and artifacts,” according to a 2022 article by Ingrid Floyd on antiquetrader.com. “The grandiosity of the Big Top, with its music and artistry, resonates still in the heart of every collector.”

Organizations such as the Circus Historical Society (www.circushistory.org) seek to preserve items from the heyday of the circus, which is older than one might think. The first circus took place in 1793 in Philadelphia, with the practice of the performances being housed in a large tent added around 1825. Famed businessman P.T. Barnum joined the scene in 1871, and his partnership with the five Ringling brothers would eventually make the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus a household name, synonymous with circuses.

Collectibles tell tales of the trends and personalities in the industry. For instance, Lloyd writes in Kovels Antique Trader’s blog, a famous clown in the 20th century, Jack LeClair, who drew up schematics for a prototype of a fat suit he would wear in his act. “If a collector obtains the ‘fat suit,’ a photograph of the clown wearing it, and LeClair’s schematic, that’s ‘auction magic,’” Lloyd writes, quoting a Florida auctioneer, Brian Hollifield.

Also expensive but relatively more affordable, of course, are the posters and other ephemera advertising circuses coming to town. These will always increase in value, Berry says, due to the very nature of ephemera itself – items made of paper that aren’t meant to be saved, but instead discarded.

Barnum, known for his innovative marketing just as much as his “Greatest Show on Earth,” would employ teams of people to plaster up the posters in any town within a half hour of the venue where the circus was to take place.

“But these colorful, vibrant posters slapped on barns, sheds and shop windows were only expected to survive a couple of weeks,” Lloyd writes.

Those posters that did survive after the circus left town have gone on to become quite valuable, and according to Antique Trader, posters from the 1930s and ‘40s are especially attractive, vibrant, and colorful – but beware of reproductions, of which there are many. Most of today’s reproductions of classic circus posters were made in the 1960s, “and in the 1970s, the Ringling Bros. sold reproductions at performances,” Lloyd says.

Those who collect circus posters should consider the item’s dimensions when looking for an original, according to Berry.
“An authentic poster measures 42 inches long by 28 inches wide for a one sheet or has dimensions of multiples or fractions of that,” he says in Lloyd’s article.

Lloyd goes on: “Check if a poster has a “P” letter in its margin followed by a stock number. An authentic circus poster does not. Lastly, using a jeweler’s loupe, examine the poster. A reproduction will have pixelation.”

Although the Ringling Bros. circus made a return in 2023 after a six-year hiatus, circus enthusiasts can get a more complete look at the industry and its history at Circus World, located in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Opened in 1959 and with seven buildings in its complex listed on the National Historic Landmark roster, Circus World offers not only daily circus performances, but also music revues, exhibits, and a massive collection of historical circus memorabilia (the site was home to the original Ringling Bros. Circus from 1884-1918, shortly before its merger with Barnum’s circus). Currently, Circus World is maintained by the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Besides boasting a massive collection of more than 9,000 historical circus posters, Circus World also possesses nearly 300 colorful circus wagons from across the United States and Europe. It’s the single largest collection in the world, according to the attraction’s website, www.circusworld.com. And if you can’t make the trek up north to Wisconsin, you can always visit www.circus-collectibles.com, a site displaying the sizable collection of Jovan Andric, a collector from Serbia whose collection includes posters, programs, flyers, tickets, and other ephemera from circuses all over the world (though Andric says he likes to focus on the circus culture of Italy, since they visited his country the most often).

“My passion for circus culture and circus advertisement has been a part of my life since early childhood,” Andric writes on the website. “It was in the mid-1970s when I became fascinated with the colorful visuals of magically drawn animals, clowns and performers covering city walls and store windows. Around the age of 4, I remember noticing posters on street light posts and observing every detail on them.”

If such coveted original items aren’t exactly in your budget, more affordable circus collectibles can be found everywhere online. Original games, photos and postcards, coin banks, cast-iron and tin toys, and even vintage popcorn and peanut bags can be found on sites like 1stdibs.com and gameroomshow.com.