Museum of Science and Industry brings down the big top on once-beloved circus exhibit

One of the Museum of Science and Industry’s circus dioramas. The circus exhibit, in one form or another, has been on display since the early 1970s and now will be auctioned off to make way for a new exhibit. (Heidi Peters/Museum of Science and Industry)

The circus exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry — with its small-scale models and dioramas — was an anachronism in a place that showcased technology.

Still, it was fun to see, particularly when it was much larger and originally sat in the MSI’s east rotunda in the years following its 1973 installation.