The collection consists of a scrapbook compiled by circus enthusiast James V. Chloupek that includes photographs documenting circus performances, animals, wagons, and performers across the United States, primarily in the 1930s-1940s. The scrapbook includes 1117 silver gelatin photographic prints and 117 prints made from film stills. Among the images are 40 photographs of the Parker & Watts Circus in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1939; these photographs include images of a parade, an image of band members in a truck with the sign “The City of Opportunity: Fort Smith, Arkansas, The Industrial City. Write Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce,” and two photographs with the Ark:Okla Road Mach. Co. building in the background. The Parker & Watts circus wintered in the Southtown area of Fort Smith.

Other locations identified include Oakland, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, California; Beaver Dam, Beloit, Evansville, Fond Du Lac, Madison, and Whitewater, Wisconsin; Ann Arbor and Jackson, Michigan; Rochester, Indiana; Sioux City, Iowa; Emporia, Kansas; Birmingham, Alabama; Princeton, Minnesota; Springhill, Louisiana; Chicago and Springfield, Illinois; Houston, Texas; Chattanooga, Tennessee; O’Neill and Omaha, Nebraska; Atlanta, Georgia; Hagerstown, Maryland; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Long Island City, New York; and St. Louis, Missouri.

Circuses and carnivals documented include King Bros. Circus; V & H All-American Circus; Russell Bros. Circus; Terrell Jacobs Wild Animal Circus; Conklin Carnival; Mill Bros. Circus; Arthur Bros. Circus; R. T. Richards Circus; the Clyde Beatty & Wallace Bros. Combined Trained Animal Circus; Van Leer Holland Classical Circus; Hennies Bros. Circus; Cole Bros. Circus; Downie Bros. Circus; Barnett Bros. Circus; Jack Hoxie Circus; Dodge Bros. Circus; Barker Bros. Circus; Lemen Bros. Circus; Lewis Bros. Circus; Parker & Watts Circus; Sells-Floto Circus; Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus; Wallace Bros. Circus; Robin Bros. Circus; Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus; 101 Ranch Circus; Tom Mix Circus; Al G. Barnes Circus; Christy Bros. Circus; Polock Indoor Circus; the Ham & Egg Circus; Yankee Patterson Circus; Rowe Bros. Circus; Campbell Bros. Circus; Bud E. Anderson’s Show; West Coast Circus; Dedrick’s Circus; Kachel’s Combined Circus; Dailey Brothers Circus; Harley Sadler Circus; Clyde Beatty Circus; and the Ken Maynard Show.

The scrapbook includes several photographs signed by circus performers; these include photographs of Ruby Wood; Baron Nowak; Eric Philmore; Ed Raymond; Tiny Kline; Floyd and Estherina Crouch; Maurice Marmolejo; JoJo and Chi Chi; and Juan de Avila.

Several photographs feature the scrapbook’s compiler, James V. Chloupek. Three photographs document workers picketing the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus in 1938. Two pages of photographs document the 1939 Circus Fans Association Convention in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Several photographs document the aftermath of a 1940 fire at Cole Bros. Circus’ winter headquarters in Peru, Indiana. Two photographs are of the Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus a day after a 1942 fire in Cleveland, Ohio.