Photo by Jim Muchlinski Veronica Meyer of Marshall has a collection of more than 3,000 clowns, which fill an entire basement. She created a full display over the past two years after she and her husband Steve moved into their current home.

MARSHALL — Clowns are much more than a laughing matter for Veronica Meyer of Marshall, who has assembled a collection that numbers into the thousands.

She has a basement filled with clown and circus memorabilia. It’s all displayed neatly on tables and shelves according to themes. They include Emmett Kelly, Bozo, masks, music boxes, a Christmas tree filled with ornaments, a 12-month display, a table of children’s toys, a birthday party section and much more.

At last count the clowns numbered about 3,000. Meyer hasn’t stopped collecting them since she still can find room for a few more.

“I didn’t intend for it to get this big,” Meyer said. “It’s just multiplied over the years. People heard I collected them and began to save some for me. Pretty soon I was being asked to take entire collections.”

Her wide assortment started to take shape after she decorated a daughter’s bedroom in a clown and carousel theme. She and her husband, Steve, have three daughters and eight grandchildren.

The opportunity to formally display the collection came about two years ago when the couple moved to their current home. It included a mostly unfinished basement, one that would have taken a large project to finish off but that was well suited to all the tables and shelves needed for the collectibles.

“It became a pastime for me,” she said. “I was spending more time at home due to the pandemic, so I used some of the time to be downstairs working on the clowns. I have so many of them that it made sense to create displays.”

The collection has many special features. One is a large fisherman clown that serves as a family favorite. Her smallest clown is an inch-tall miniature on a bicycle that was a gift from her mother.

She created a display in memory of her father using a group of card playing clowns. They stand on the decks of cards that her father, who was an avid card player, amassed over the years.

She has entire sections devoted to topics like trains and travel, sports, bathroom furnishings, piggy banks and jewelry. A few large memorabilia items enhance displays, including a tall CD case made to look like a clown and a jersey from the historic Chicago Clowns Negro League baseball team.

“I never limited the collection,” Meyer said. “I collected everything clown related, right down to things like birthday napkins.”

Now that she has the entire collection on display, she plans to create a record book to document all the different items. Her children and grandchildren have each picked out clown items they eventually want to own, but she isn’t sure what will happen to most of what she’s built up.

“Someday I might narrow it down,” she said. “I might trade items to expand special categories that I want to keep. For now we’ll keep them, enjoy them and show them to family and friends.”

She’s found clown memorabilia in many places; including auctions, flea markets, stores and garage sales. She said a wide range of items are available for low prices.

The basement includes several examples of animation that create a clown-like atmosphere. A carousel plays circus music. A Santa methodically paints a clown figure.

Her clown collection is rivaled only by a 500-piece collection of Willie Nelson memorabilia, which is the focus of a spare main floor bedroom. She and Steve have been to a total of 112 Willie Nelson concerts, which has led them to become friends with the music star.

She enjoys seeing the reactions of visitors when they see the results of her work to create a home-based clown mecca, one that’s very comparable to a specialized museum.

“Part of the fun is sharing it with others,” Meyer said. “When people first hear that I have a clown collection they don’t expect much, maybe just a table or a couple of shelves. They’re surprised. It creates an impression.”