(Editor’s note: This is a first-person account written by Josh Jenkins.)
One of my favorite memories from my teenage years was eating Saturday dinner in the kitchen while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on the small TV that sat atop our deep freezer in the corner of the dining room. My mom hated the show, but my dad and I watched it each week without fail. I was born into the hype of Star Wars and the mythos surrounding the Skywalker family, but Star Trek gave me a newer, cleaner vision of the future. The Enterprise crew could ask the ship for any bit of information—not only about Earth and its history but about any and all details of the explored areas of the galaxy. How fascinating that a computer could hold so much information and make it readily available at a moment’s notice.
The series fulfilled my interest in science fiction, but it also quenched my thirst for learning, broadening my perspectives and exposing me to new and exciting aspects of life. Exploring the galaxy with the Enterprise filled my proverbial bucket. It’s no wonder I became such a book nerd and travel enthusiast—I credit part of that to Gene Roddenberry and his classic sci-fi universe.
It is no surprise that I eventually became a librarian. My happiest moments as a student were spent perusing the shelves, discovering new and interesting topics to explore. As my career progressed, I recognized the need to sharpen my skill set and stay on the cutting edge of information technology. This realization led me to pursue a master’s in digital curation and management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. To my surprise, the skills I gained through the program extended far beyond traditional library work. As both private and public institutions expanded their digital resources, I saw an opportunity to bridge the gap between old-school libraries and the digital compendium I had once admired in Star Trek. With enough time, effort, and resources, we could finally achieve easily accessible information on a near-limitless number of topics. The future had arrived.
Life Under the Big Top: Preserving a Vanishing World
Before the rise of streaming television, multiplex cinemas, and national Broadway tours, the circus was a major focal point of the American entertainment experience. While most people recognize names like Ringling Brothers, P.T. Barnum, and the Bailey brothers, many other shows toured throughout the United States. Shows such as the Al G. Barnes 3 Ring Wild Animal Circus, Bud E. Anderson’s American Victory 3 Ring Circus, and the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show entertained crowds across the country. For many small towns, the arrival of the circus meant an impromptu holiday, with schools and businesses closing so that citizens could witness the greatest spectacle ever to pass through their area.
While traveling across the nation—and, at times, the world—circuses kept detailed route books documenting each stop on their tour, major events at each location, which performers were available, and other noteworthy occurrences. These route books became a record of the circus for an entire year, offering a rare glimpse into the life of a traveling circus.
Digital Curation: Bringing the Past to the Present
In addition to circus route books, the Milner Library at Illinois State University has curated an extensive collection of circus and allied arts resources. This collection has become an internationally recognized repository for circus enthusiasts and researchers. Some of the holdings include:
• Original photographs
• Personal correspondence
• Business records
• Drawings and poster designs
• Artifacts
• Books
• Heralds and other advertisements
• Magazines and newspapers
The Wikidata Project
As part of my internship at Illinois State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I am working to expand links from the Milner Library’s digital collection to the Wikidata Project. Wikidata, a branch of the larger Wikimedia venture, is an open-source, collaborative database that serves as a centralized knowledge hub for all Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia. Essentially, it allows users to create structured entries that link to other Wikimedia resources, forming a vast interconnected repository of human knowledge.
As an information specialist and librarian, my role is to extract data from the circus route books and create corresponding Wikidata entries. These entries link back to the original sources, ensuring the validity of the information and making it easier for researchers to explore the collection. Using Wikidata’s structured query format (triples: subject → predicate → object), researchers can conduct advanced searches, such as:
• Finding female Italian circus performers from 1880 to 1920
• Filtering by specific circus companies or regions
• Identifying performers who transitioned to Vaudeville
This level of searchability and interconnectivity brings us closer to the fictional knowledge database of the Starship Enterprise—except now, it’s real.
The Future of Circus History in a Digital Age
Although digital curation is still in its infancy, it is revolutionizing historical research by making archives more widely accessible beyond the walls of traditional libraries. Thanks to institutions like the Milner Library, circus researchers and enthusiasts can now access many collections remotely at no cost.
However, digital curation is not “free.” Many universities and cultural heritage foundations have invested funds to develop digital collections, yet more private investment is needed. Wikimedia attempts to bridge this gap by providing wider access to images in the public domain, but continued investment in the future of digital collection practices is vital to the preservation of our collective knowledge and individual cultures.
Institutions still require funding for:
• Specialized staff
• Digital storage and backup systems
• Data preservation protocols
Without continued investment, widespread access to the stories of circus performers and their communities could fade into obscurity. Our work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Illinois State University helps to ensure that their legacies live on, integrated into the massive global knowledge network for future generations.
Josh Jenkins is a library science graduate student studying digital curation and management at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is completing a remote internship in Special Collections at Milner Library.
