ABSTRACT
In the People's Show Festival, 1994, Leicestershire had the greatest number ofparticipating museums. As a result ofthe People's Show held at the central museum and art gallery in Leicester, a number of exhibitors came together to form the Leicestershire Collectors' Club. In 1995, it was decided that the club should stage its own People's Show. It was held over a two-week period, covering the August bank holiday, at Leicester's medieval Guildhall, and was opened by the Lord Mayor. The format followed that ofthe People's Show, but utilised no professional museum assistance in its staging. Members themselves drew on their various skills as carpenters, electricians, designers and journalists to acquire the necessary materials and mount publicity with which to stage the show. Exhibits ranged from a history of shaving implements, vintage electrical fittings and 'named spanners', to antique pens, fluffy toys and military uniforms. What is perhaps significant here, is that a group of preexisting collectors, brought together by a museum presentation, acted on that example and reproduced their own version. This demonstrates the potential of museums to collectors, and if pursued could be another form of contact between institutional and popular collecting. That a private group of popular collectors has publicly emulated museum display practice also points to a trend that is becoming increasingly common amongst collectors' clubs, which is to stage public displays of their collections. Leicester was not alone in staging such a show or forming such a club in the wake of the People's Shows. Similar activity was reported in Newcastle upon Tyne and Bradford. The imitation ofmuseum practice in this sense, points to a necessity for museums to make a fuller engagement with local collectors in the wake ofthe People's Shows, perhaps init~ally through a collectors' register.
