More than a year of planning and all six floors of Illinois State University’s Milner Library were needed to accommodate an undertaking one library staff member called “the biggest exhibit the library has done.”
Sites, Sights, and Sounds of Circus opened Friday, August 25, in conjunction with the Circus Historical Society’s annual convention, which brought visitors from all over—some from as far as Australia—who browsed historically significant items kept in Illinois State’s Circus and Allied Arts Collection.
“People have come from around the world,” said Head of Special Collections Maureen Brunsdale. “It’s neat to see their excitement and their enthusiasm for this glorious thing called circus.”
Visitors were treated to a vast collection of circus posters, costumes, photographs, and artwork displayed throughout Milner Library. Famous names like Barnum and Ringling and Wallenda jumped off the pages of business documents, telegraphs, and handwritten letters preserved in the Illinois State collection.
“This has given us a chance to feature a lot of the more hidden aspects of our collections,” said Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Fitzsimmons. “It’s been a great opportunity for us to really show not just the scale but really the scope of the collection here.”
The exhibit ran in conjunction with the Circus Historical Society’s annual convention, which ran from August 24-27, as well as the Sweet Corn Circus, a community event attended by thousands in Uptown Normal featuring Illinois State’s Gamma Phi Circus, August 26-27.
The rich circus history of Bloomington-Normal and Illinois State University was on display all weekend.
“From the 1870s to the 1950s, Bloomington-Normal was the trapeze capital of the world,” said Brunsdale, who spoke at two Circus Historical Society events after the exhibit opening. “In the 1950s, when performers started being centralized in places like Sarasota, Florida, our library director thought we were losing this cultural component of this community, and we needed to do something about it.
“So, she started the Circus and Allied Arts Collection as a way to document the cultural component of the community that was once here and thriving.”
The exhibit opening at Milner also included a gallery talk from visiting artist Yetti Frenkel and a talk from Milner Library’s 2022 Circus and Allied Arts Fellow Aíne Norris.
A former horse groomer in the Big Apple Circus, Frenkel’s artwork was displayed in the Benway Student Art Exhibition Area. “This is wonderful to see so many people here who share the same love of circus,” Frenkel told the crowd gathered for her talk. “We are kindred spirits.”
A doctoral student at Old Dominion University, Norris spent a week in October 2022 collecting and scanning artifacts from Illinois State’s collection for her dissertation research.
“Access to this collection was formative,” Norris said. “It helped me solidify the pieces I’ll need to formally pitch this project in just a few months, and working here also helped me refine my methodology.”
Sites, Sights, and Sounds of Circus will remain on display at Milner Library through October 15.
