Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dr. E's Toy Museum and American Doll & Toy Museum

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dr. E's Toy Museum and American Doll & Toy Museum: Good Evening to all!  The latest news for the museum is that our Etsy store, Dr. E's Toy Museum is up, running, and selling! We are fe...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dr. E's Toy Museum and American Doll & Toy Museum

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dr. E's Toy Museum and American Doll & Toy Museum: Good Evening to all!  The latest news for the museum is that our Etsy store, Dr. E's Toy Museum is up, running, and selling! We are fe...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dr. E's Toy Museum and American Doll & Toy Museum

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Dr. E's Toy Museum and American Doll & Toy Museum: Good Evening to all!  The latest news for the museum is that our Etsy store, Dr. E's Toy Museum is up, running, and selling! We are fe...

On Souvenirs

I'm writing in praise of all kinds of souvenirs in this post, all kinds.  Not just dolls, but spoons, thimbles, snapshots, pennants, patches, shot glasses, rocks, shells, postcards, guidebooks, pillows, T-shirts and sweat shirts, hats, snow globes, stuffed animals, salt and pepper shakers, pressed flowers, posters, you name it.   

Sure, there's the crowd that puts everything on their phones, The Cloud, or digital cameras, and then prides themselves on not buying tchotchkeys.  " We only need each other and our memories" they coo.  One particularly obnoxious duo is fond of making you look at frame after frame of the most unmemorable international pictures I've ever seen.  Their house shows no hint that they've ever been outside the county line.  Empty and boring.  Not even family photos.  He's a historian; doesn't he get books are important?  Or artifacts?  Or historiography?

Memories are great; souvenirs help to build and preserve them.  The Strong National Museum of Play has a whole section devoted to them; many appear on their web museum.  Check it out.  The Federal Rules of Evidence contain a hearsay exception that allows one to show any item to a witness to help refresh that witness's recollection.  That's what souvenirs do, refresh our recollection long after our travelling clothes have fallen apart and our suitcases are dusty.

Italian Pinocchio souvenir doll, Italy

Souvenir Dolls Formosa and China, 70s, 80s.

Tootsie Toy Jeep

My mother's decals, loving collected over trips to all 48 states and Mexico that she and her family took bring back those memories and trips every time I look at them.  My Dad's old maps take me back to those drives across the Mojave, where we stopped for rocks, and to read directions.  We have the rock's too, gathered by three generations.   Our family albums and slides are priceless to us.

My Dad, collector of personal memorabilia, stamps, coins, maps, slides, model airplanes, jig saw puzzles and Civil War books, gifted me with the bill from when I was born.  It's in an album, and the gift brought tears to my eyes.  He also built dollhouses, doll shelves. and cabinets for me.

My whole family is into collecting, and into travelling when we can. 

SFBJ French bisque dressed in Breton costume

An author who knows the value of a good collectible, souvenir

Souvenir from The Prado, Madrid, Murillo, The Holy Family. 1969

Greek doll, late fifties, Rhodes

Souvenir of Tut exhibition

Souvenir of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

I hate the thought that our lives and freedom end up depending on who can go the the bathroom alone, and who ends up in one tiny room with a twin bed. Then, for doll collectors, the terrible irony hits that baby dolls are used as therapy tools in nursing homes, when doll collections are forcibly taken away along with all their other possessions, just so they can be put in a home, convenient care not for them, but for their families.

Who we are is what we own.  It defines us.  Some artists do portraits not of human subjects, but of their libraries.   This is why the study of material culture, sociology, archaeology, art history, and anthropology exist.

Happy collecting.

These were my Remarks at the Ribbon Cutting, with an Anne Rice Quote/Tribute

Mr. Mayor, Members of the City Council, and Honored Guests,

Thank you for coming today.  I’d like to thank the City and everyone else who has been so supportive of this museum, including the College Hill businesses, Wells Fargo, Vintage Rose, our landlord, Tim’s Corner,  my family and friends, my Husband and our son, and above all my Mom and Dad, how I wish they had lived to be here.  I’d like to begin my brief comments with this quote by noted author Anne Rice, who was herself a doll collector;

 “When you loved dolls and studied them, you started to love all kinds of people too, because you saw the virtue in their expressions, how carefully they had been sculpted, the parts contrived to create the triumph of this or that remarkable face.” Anne Rice, Taltos.

Dolls are among the oldest human artifacts, and toys have inspired rocket scientists, artists, and many others to create amazing things.  All we have of many cultures who have disappeared from the earth are their dolls and toys.  This is one reason they are important, and need to be preserved.

The dolls and toys  in this museum, both at this location, and at our future location at the 30/31 library represent the cultures of those who have settled in our community, as well as the efforts of those who have set up their businesses to make dolls and toys here. 

They are objects of nostalgia, of history, of art.  The Quad Cities have been home to me for most of my life, and the objects in this collection were curated largely from our community, and from all over the world. 

Our museum is open to all and we welcome anyone who wants to learn about us, about QCA toy stories, about dolls and toys in general.  But, we’re also open to kids of all ages, from on month to over 100, and we hope everyone will come here, stay to visit, and learn to think out side the doll house.

Thank you.

Ribbon Cutting at American Doll and Toy Museum February 12, 2020

Ribbon Cutting at American Doll and Toy Museum February 12, 2020

Not only was it Lincoln’s Birthday and my grandparent’s 93d wedding Anniversary Yesterday, but it was our ribbon cutting and hearing date for approval of the zoning for our doll museum.

My grandparents, Steve and Marie Fanakos were married in Paris.  He sailed to meet her in Paris, and she traveled there with the best man, who was the Mayor of her hometown, Kalamata, where the olives are from.  Later, the Communist guerrillas would hang the poor best man from a lamppost during the Civil War, but Feb. 12, 1927 represented happier times.  My grandpa was considered an expatriate, and he could not return to his birthplace to marry Marie.  It would be years before he and his family could return to settle real-estate matters and to visit.  Unfortunately, it was 1938, and the two month vacation became an 8 year occupation until they could all be liberated and returned home safely.

Feb.12^th was also the date my first fiancé and I broke up rather fantastically.  His mother wouldn’t give him a permission note to get married.   As he said, if I’d minded his mother, none of that would’ve happened, and she would have allowed us to get married.  Hmph!  

So, it was time for a good Valentine’s/Lincoln Birthday holiday of sorts.

Yet, we were not without our poltergeists.  Fifteen minutes before the mayor and other visitors arrived, I locked myself out of the museum.  It was around twenty degrees, and even my Talbot’s grey wool dress, boots, and snake print Ruby Rd. cardigan couldn’t keep all the cold out.

I ran next door to Tim’s Corner, and we tried phone calls, keys, prayers, etc.  Jason, our wonderful organizer for the event, gallantly offered me his jacket and called lock smiths, fire chiefs, and police chiefs.  Some of my family arrived, including my 90 year old aunt. 

Just in the nick of time, as people were lining up outside the door, my friend drove home to get the extra key from my husband, who wasn’t answering the phone for some reason.  I’d also called the landlord, my friend Michelle from Vintage Rose, who also came running with a key. 

All's well that ends well, as the Bard might say, and we proceeded.  I’m also posting separately my comments.  Aunt Connie helped to cut the ribbon, and everyone signed it.  We are going to display it very proudly.

Mike Thoms, our Mayor, was gracious and enthusiastic, and honored us by mentioning that we did indeed have some items on display from the collection of his late mother.  

The local press was wonderful; our thanks to Bryan Bobb, camera man, and to Jonathan Turner, and the other reporters from our local stations who gave us wonderful coverage in print, on the Web, and on TV. 

The day was a celebration of our entire community, and of all the people who helped make this museum possible.

Later, we were approved by our local zoning and planning commission to use our future building as a museum.  Angela Campbell, director of our library was awesome.  She attended the ribbon cutting and the hearing later to speak for us.

It just goes to prove that dolls and toys bring people together in love, friendship, and community.  Our museum promotes diversity and culture, and honors the history of the dolls, their makers, the artists who designed them, those who collect them, and the children who love dolls and toys.

Dolls are humanities historians, and they also give us pleasure and happiness.

Happy Collecting!

Interview at Museum with Jonathan Turner of
Dispatch/Argus.  Mayor Thoms is standing in the foreground.

With Aunt Connie and Santa inside

Jason who did great PR ad the Mayor outside

Inside with the Press

Outside getting ready

L to R:  Dr. Mike and Hedy Hustedde, my former boss and colleague, and members of our board,
me, Connie, Mayor Thoms, Alderman Mark Poulos, The Fire Chief of Rock Island

The Ribbon

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Taltos by Anne Rice

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Taltos by Anne Rice: It is nearly Halloween; here is a post from one of my favorite authors, who also happens to like dolls. We have books and dolls from her...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: For Valentine's Day

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: For Valentine's Day: May you enjoy a peaceful, Happy Valentine's Day, filled with glad memories of The Valentine's Box, conversation hearts, and loving m...