Friday, January 30, 2009

THE WISCONSIN (SARASOTA TIMES HERALD)

The kitchen aboard the Wisconsin.The supply list for John and Mable Ringling’s train car in April 1905 included: 4 1/2 pounds of porterhouse steak, $1.133 1/2 pounds of bacon, $0.5614 pounds of ham, $1.541/4 peck of apples, $0.151 gallon of cream, $0.7512 splits of Apollinaris Water, $1.0812 pints Apollinaris Water, $1.3212 pints Pabst Beer, $0.721 quart of rye whiskey, $1.00SOURCE: John and Mable Ringling Museum
Jessica Wehner of Sarasota peers into the Wisconsin, John and Mabel Ringling's private rail car, at The John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota on Thursday.


THE WISCONSIN
• Built by the Pullman Co., it is 65 tons, 79 feet long, 14 feet high and 10 feet wide and cost $11,325.23.
• It was the personal car of John and Mable Ringling from 1905 to 1916.
• The car contains an observation room, three bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, a bathroom and servants’ quarters.
• John Ringling sold the Wisconsin to the Norfolk Southern Railway, and it wound up in Morehead City, N.C., where it was used as a fishing lodge by officials with the Atlantic & East Carolina Railway.
• Circus buff Howard C. Tibbals found the car and confirmed it was Ringling’s.
• It was restored by the North Carolina Transportation Museum in 1990 and donated it to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in 2003.
The Wisconsin is on display at the Circus Museum on the grounds of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Road. For more information, visit http://www.ringling.org/, or call 359-5700.



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