Sofia Paschero grew up in Sarasota and visited The Ringling countless times throughout her childhood, but she could never have imagined how many secrets the estate held until she returned to the museum for an internship as a PhD student in History at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas. During her internship, Paschero delved deep into the history of the Ca’ d’Zan mansion by investigating objects original to the Ringlings’ period of residency there. Discover her extraordinary findings in this three-part blog series.  

The Mystery of the Longhorns

By Sofia Paschero

During a tour of Ca’ d’Zan with Marissa Hershon, the Curator of Ca’ d’Zan and Decorative Arts, I spotted a set of mounted Texas longhorn cattle horns, featuring a single star in the center, that was displayed on the wall of the Tap Room. The longhorns immediately caught my attention as the design referenced the Lone Star State.  

According to folklore, the longhorns were gifted to John Ringling (1866–1936) by Amon Carter (1879–1955), a prominent Texan who started publishing the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in the 1920s and founded the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in 1961. I was amazed to learn of this direct connection between Sarasota and Fort Worth. After I searched but found no documentation in physical and digital object records at The Ringling, I continued to look for historical references from the 1920s to these longhorns.  

In my curatorial detective work, I located a folder on John Ringling in the Amon Carter Collection of the TCU Archives Digital Repository. There, I found two telegrams between Ringling and Carter dating to 1926 as well as a letter from Carter to Ringling about the longhorns being shipped to Sarasota. From their correspondence, I could see that they joked with one another about the longhorns but also had respect and admiration for each other.  

With these period sources for reference, The Ringling is able to trace the provenance, or history of ownership, of the longhorns to a specific point in time. Now this information may be woven into the narrative shared through educational tours of Ca’ d’Zan. 

Meet the Intern | Sofia Paschero

I first experienced The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art in 2005 on a field trip as an eight-year-old student at Southside Elementary School. I remember walking through the galleries, staring up at the enormous Peter Paul Rubens paintings on view in the Museum of Art. Growing up in Sarasota, Florida, I visited The Ringling again and again and enjoyed seeing new artworks displayed and new buildings erected on the estate. My childhood memories from the second grade onward have stayed with me all these years later.  

As a graduate student in the MA program in History at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, I considered the possibility of museum work while I provided research support to a professor. I first pursued a museum internship at the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society at the Lenora Rolla Museum in Texas, where I researched murals in the collection. Eager to build my professional experience in the museum field, I applied and interviewed for a curatorial summer internship at The Ringling once I was studying as a third-year PhD student in History at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas.  

Over the summer of 2024, Marissa Hershon, Curator of Ca’ d’Zan and Decorative Arts, gave me the opportunity to contribute to curatorial research, starting with investigating objects original to the Ringlings’ period of residency at Ca’ d’Zan. Conducting research made me realize that there is great potential to uncover fascinating details about Ca’ d’Zan and the people who lived and worked here.