I guess I bring this up because I've got a whole house and garage full of
stuff that "ought to be in a museum somewhere" :-)  Maybe it's in the same
category as Richard Brautigan's idea of a library where people could
bring their books.
 
There are some numbers of private collections of things, ranging from
Great Art to popular culture artifacts.  Some of these are known about to
some people and are perhaps open to public showing by prior appointment.
For example, the amateur radio magazine QST has occasionally published
information about individuals who have collections of early radio equipment
and will show and tell to visitors who call ahead and arrange a convenient
time.  Likewise I'm aware of collectors of antique radio receivers who
have restored them and have them on display; and of course people collect
all kinds of things.  And there are things like groups of steam
locomotive enthusiasts who may have a barn somewhere containing the
locomotive they are restoring.  Or the privately-owned antique automobile
or airplane that is the only survivor of its type.
 
There are also corporate museums that come and go.  Western Union used to
have an extensive museum of artifacts of the telegraph industry.  When
the company fell on hard times and acquired new owners my understanding
is that some of the collection went to the Smithsonian and the rest was
scrapped.  One of my former employers had a collection of printing
telegraph equipment from the earliest days, mainly for study by the
company's own engineers.  That company no longer exists; and I don't know
what happened to the collection.
 
I'm having a hard time thinking of a point to make in this long posting.
I guess one question is, how do we decide what belongs in a museum (and
if not in ours, whose?), what belongs in private collections or roadside
attractions, and what can be consigned to the dump with no pangs of regret?
In most cases a private collection will have no scholarly resources
behind it, yet the collector may be the best expert alive on the topic of
the collection.  Is there, should there be, a data base of specialized
museums and private collections?  How to keep such a data base from being
used as a catalog by thieves?  Is there a need to build bridges between
professional museum workers and private collectors and keepers of
roadside attractions?  If a collector of fine art dies no doubt the
estate auctioneers and art museums are all over the survivors; but if the
leading corporate manufacturer of corkscrews goes out of business the
survivors are likely to call in dump trucks.  If the owner of a private
collection of corkscrews dies, whom should the heirs call in?
 
Please forgive the naivete of these questions.  I'm not a museum
professional.  I subscribe to the list mainly so I can pass along copies
of the postings to the curator at a local museum who doesn't have
electronic access.  And I'm getting to be a nostalgic old geezer who
feels pangs of guilt whenever some piece of technology that may have been
the centerpiece of some engineer's career is sent to the dump as merely
obsolete.