The decision to merge two of the Washington region’s quirkiest museums came after Claire McLean, who has run the Presidential Pet Museum since 1999, decided she couldn’t do it anymore.

“I was too old to really get out there and network and keep the store going,” said McLean, a dog breeder. “I started at 69. I’m 74 now and didn’t have the energy to do it.”

She needed a home for her eclectic, nonpartisan collection, which included hair trimmings from Lucky, a bouvier des Flandres owned by the Reagan family, that were pasted to a sketch of the dog.

The privately funded museum, which first opened in Lothian, Maryland, also included a photo of Herbert Hoover and King Tut, a Belgian police dog who is said to have died while in office; a collage of the Eisenhowers and Heidi, a brown Weimaraner; and a portrait of the Nixons with Checkers, among other attractions. McLean kept a Mr Peanut statue, an allusion to Jimmy Carter, who had a dog named Grits.

McLean was approached by a friend of Everette H Newman III, co-owner of Presidents Park. The park opened in 2004 after a lengthy legal battle with York County officials and historical preservationists, who looked askance at the plan for its 7,000-pound presidential busts, each about 18 feet tall. But the park, off Interstate 64, has been a success, attracting 50,000 to 60,000 visitors last year, Newman said.

“We kind of have a broad view of presidential history,” Newman said. “Anything that has to do with presidents, we like to have it here at Presidents Park... It’s always nice to be expanding a new dimension to a museum here.”

Given the opportunity to place her private collection before a much larger audience, McLean quickly agreed to give it to the park. Most of the collection’s contents have been taken to Williamsburg, where Newman hopes to have them on display by Presidents’ Day, February 18.

“I think and truly believe in time it will take its place with the ‘big boys’ and national institutions in the world,” said McLean.