Paintings, sculptures, gems, cars, items made perfectly by a single craftsman — if you have the collector’s gene, these are the kinds of things you must own. Add wealth to fuel that desire, and your collection is likely to grow. But then what do you do with it?

If you can’t bear the thought of a life’s acquisitions being sold off — or, at best, going to a museum to be displayed only occasionally — the urge may be to open a museum of your own.

Picture it: your name emblazoned on the facade, your collection arrayed inside just as you like, your taste enshrined for all time. It has worked for people like Albert Barnes, Henry Clay Frick and Isabella Stewart Gardner, who all created museums in their names to house their art.

Cameel Halim, who made his money in real estate in Chicago, added his name to the list of those with private museums when the Halim Time & Glass Museum opened in Evanston, Ill., on Tuesday. The museum is the culmination of Mr. Halim’s lifelong fascination with time and a way for him to display the clocks, timepieces and stained glass he has bought over the course of three decades.