Ringling Bros. Ending Elephant Acts in 3 Years

After 145 years, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is ending its elephant acts by 2018, among the concerns over animal treatment.

The circus currently has 13 elephants traveling with its tour units. They will be relocated to the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation in Polk City, Florida once their acts end. More than 40 other elephants are already at the Center. However, other exotic animals such as lions and tigers will continue performing.

It's a victory for the animal rights groups such as PETA and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals who have been claiming mistreatment of circus animals for a long time. While the parent company of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was able to won a nearly $16 million settlement from a number of animal-rights groups including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year legal battle, it was the shifting consumer perceptions done the elephant acts in.

The stamped card features one of the eight USPS Vintage Circus Posters Commemorative stamps which uses a reproduction of a 1926 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey poster made by the Strobridge Lithographing Company, showing an ornately costumed elephant. The vintage poster used a bragging tag line “5 Big Herds of Performing Elephants in 5 Circus Rings at One Time” to advertise the Greatest Show on Earth. The card has a pictorial first-day-of-issue postmark on May 5, 2014 from Sarasota, FL 34230.

Burg Giebichenstein und die Giebichensteinbrücke

Postcard DE-3903996 from Germany shows Giebichenstein Castle and the Giebichensteinbrücke bridge in Halle (Saale), an economic and educational center in eastern Germany, located in the southern Saxony-Anhalt state.

Giebichenstein Castle, seen on the right on the postcard, was a royal residence of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor in the 9th century. It is used by the Kunsthochschule Halle (Academy of Arts) of the Burg Giebichenstein Art School.

The Giebichensteinbrücke bridge, also known as Kröllwitzer bridge, is one of three Saale River crossings in Halle, located in the north part of the city below Giebichenstein Castle. The Giebichensteinbrücke bridge in its current form was built between 1926 and 1928 as a replacement for a steel bridge with large truss arch from 1892. The bridge's main arch was blown up during the final days of World War II on April 14, 1945. It was re-built in 1949 and renovated from 1993 to 1995.

On February 13, 1990, an agreement was announced on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.

From Los Angeles to Chicago

Postcard US-2738798 to the Netherlands shows a map of Route 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago. Also known as the Will Rogers Highway or the Main Street of America, U.S. Route 66 was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926 with road signs up the following year, originally ran from Santa Monica, California, through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, to Chicago in a distance of 2,448 miles or 3,940 kilometers.

According to Wikipedia, Route 66 served as a major path for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it had been entirely replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". Several states have adopted significant bypassed sections of the former US 66 into the state road network as State Route 66.

The map was originally created in 1956 with inserts showing such famous scenes along the route as Joshua Tree Forest, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, Indian War Dance, Will Rogers Monument and the Mississippi River. The postcard is available for purchase at Zazzle.