The Circus Museum’s collection
The Circus Museum’s collection is among the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. It consists of more than 100,000 different artefacts, including many thousands of photos and posters, costumes and props, personal notebooks, programmes and newspaper clippings. The Circus Museum’s collection contains material relating to acrobats, jugglers, animal trainers, clowns, magicians, illusionists, workers, musicians, actors and dancers. While it focuses on Danish artists, the collection also contains quite a lot of international material.
The large majority of the museum’s artefacts come from the artist Ølund Barlys’ large circus- and artistcollection, on which the Circus Museum is based. Later on Truxa the magician’s collection was added, along with a large number of other artefacts which have been donated by individuals, artists, various circuses and other museums and archives.
Queries
The Circus Museum is more than happy to receive queries from genealogists, circus enthusiasts and anyone else who might have a question about circus history. Many private individuals use the museum in their search for information about relatives who have performed in the circus or variety shows, while media and researchers come to the museum for expert advice.
We do our best to provide an answer as quickly as possible and endeavour to do so within 10 days. The more information we are given about a query, the greater the chances that we can provide more knowledge or answer questions. As such it is important that we are provided with all the known information in relation to your query.
Send your query to info@cirkusmuseet.dk or phone 36 49 00 30 (weekdays between 10am-3pm).
Visit the collection and library
It is possible to make arrangements to visit the museum’s extensive library of circus litterature or to view some of the artefacts from our collection. Because a large part of the museum’s collection is placed in collection stores, viewings can only take place by appointment.
To make an appointment contact the Circus Museum by emailing info@cirkusmuseet.dk or phone 36 49 00 30 (weekdays between 10am-3pm).
Donations
The Circus Museum has a collection policy that focuses on collecting artefacts relevant to documenting and describing the Danish artist- and circushistory. As such we appreciate offers of donations of artefacts or stories from the world of circus and its artist, although we reserve the right to decline offers.
Upon donation the Circus Museum fills out a so-called “incomeslip”, which collects information about the artefact and its history. The incomeslip is also an agreement between the giver and the Circus Museum regarding the museum’s rights in relation to the item.
We would love to hear from you regarding any items you want to donate to the Circus Museum. To ensure the best handover possible, you need to make an appointment for the handover of the item you wish to donate.
Contact the museum on info@cirkusmuseet.dk or by phoning 36 49 00 30 (weekdays between 10am-3pm) to make arrangements for a possible handover.
