Immel Circus Gallery

The 100-square foot miniature circus contains 2,620 pieces: thirty-six elephants, 186 horses, 102 assorted animals, ninety-one wagons, seven tents, and 2,207 people. Most of the pieces were hand-carved by Dr. Robert Immel using tools from his dental practice. Some were handcrafted by friends and retired circus performers. The Immel Circus has twice been dismantled and reconstructed: once after a fire threatened the display in the Immels’ home, and once to move it to the Massillon Museum.

Massillon native Dr. Robert M. Immel said that trips with his uncle to the circus were his inspiration for carving and collecting memorabilia. His uncle would take him to every circus that came to town. “It was such a tremendous thing for him to come and do that,” Immel says. “I was at the age when you’d learn everything and love it. Elephants were big and it was great to look up at them. It was quite a thrill.”

In 1946, Immel began his first carvings. “When I came home from the service, I had a friend…he lived across the street and was always carving things. One night he showed me what he was doing and I started. I did everything, carving to painting,” Dr. Immel recalled. “I never started out to do it,” he said of his almost fifty-year project. “I think everyone should have a hobby and should develop that interest young,” he said.

The most interesting piece in the carved circus, to Dr. Immel, was the eight-horse liberty act that is located in the big top. The liberty act was aptly named because the horses were free to move about. He decided to carve the horses out of mahogany because he did not want them to break. “I started to paint them and carve them and I’d get sick.

I went to the doctor and I [found that] I had an allergy.” He wanted to stay true to his vision of mahogany liberty horses so he went to the doctor’s office every Monday and Thursday morning to receive allergy shots so that he could continue his work. It took him six weeks to complete the horses.

The last carving to be added to the circus is a seven-piece elephant mount. Of the hundreds of hand-carved pieces on the board, none are alike. If you have not seen all 2,620 pieces, don’t worry: it may take more than one visit. “I carved the darn thing and I still haven’t seen everything!” remarked Dr. Immel.

Every piece in the circus has a story. One story he often recounted was that of a circle of men driving in a stake to hold the tent ropes. The vignette is located at the corner closest to the entrance of the circus gallery. Each man holds his hammer at a precise position so that each strikes at a different moment. If one man hits too soon or too late, he could kill another worker! Dr. Immel is proud of his accurate portrayal of this scene. “Please observe that I have tried to make the appearance of the circus look like it is actually in motion. As if everybody was doing something and someone said ‘hold it!’ and everybody stopped.”

Many adults remember visiting Dr. Immel’s dental office when they were children. After their cleaning, they were permitted to visit the hand-carved circus in the basement. Dr. Immel donated the miniature circus to the Massillon Museum in 1995, along with more than 1,400 artifacts of circus-related memorabilia. His collection includes 115 photographs of circus sideshow acts, 559 circus letterheads, 128 books, costumes, figurines, posters, 256 circus programs, and 357 miscellaneous circus photographs.

Of all the circus memorabilia, Dr. Immel favored the Tom Thumb clothing and wedding album and the gold-tipped walking stick used by P.T. Barnum. The Immel Circus is one of the few permanent displays at the Massillon Museum. It is always displayed on the second floor, along with other circus memorabilia, which rotates regularly. When he led personal tours of his circus, Dr. Immel encouraged visitors to look for hidden stories—a boy running for the restroom, a sick zebra, two performers playing checkers, and the pet monkey.

The Immel Circus is on view during regular museum hours.