American Doll and Toy Museum Update

 

It’s been a while, so I thought I would give a status update on the Museum.  Our beautiful storage building, which complies with the common scheme and plan of our building, and our neighborhood, is up. We’ve dotted all our “I’s” and crossed our “t’s.”  It has taken is eight months, far longer than we expected.  We are still closed while we reorganize and rearrange.  We will be storing many museum items in the building.  We were blessed last year with thousands of donations, which we promised we would sell.  It is just my husband and me at this point, doing the packing and moving, so we ask for everyone’s understanding.

We hope to open up in late fall.  The second building gives us room to conserve and protect toys, games, dolls and related objects. This is what museums are meant to do. Our artifacts tell the history of humanity; they also evoke nostalgia for those who want to revisit their childhood.

Our dolls, in particular are portraits of those who made them.  They are often the only artifacts left of some civilizations, as noted by early author Laura Starr (The Doll Book).  G. Stanley Hall, often called the father of modern psychology, has written of the educational importance of dolls in A Study of Dolls,  Poet Baudelaire has also written an essay on the importance of toys in “A Philosophy of Toys.”

To better serve everyone’s needs, we will only be open by appointment in the future.  Admission will remain the same. 5.00 Adults, 3.00 Seniors and Military, 1.00 children under 15.

We are a not for profit charity, and survive on donations, especially financial donations.  We need to maintain or building and grounds, and these are very expensive items.

Also, this museum is  a love letter to my family, who travelled and lived all over the world.  The collection started with dolls brought to my grandmother, Marie Fanakos.  She and her sister were poor; they worked as seamstresses, and wore mourning for their father, even as little girls.  Neither she, nor her sister Voula, had toys.  Yet, my grandmother loved dolls.

My mother, aunt, and grandmother made dolls for me.  My father brough them home from business trips and made doll houses and model airplanes, as well as doll cases.  My uncle Tom, an artist, brought me a doll every week when he came to spend the weekend  with us. Tom also repaired dolls and doll furniture.  My uncle George brought them from  trips, and my grandfather would buy little dolls for me that fit in shoeboxes. My cousin Linda collected dolls and trolls, and her brother Chuck collected toy soldiers, and many of these are part of the museum collection.

Some of our dolls and toys belonged to rock stars’ families, to president’s daughters, to local dignitaries.  We have model zeppelins, puppets, ships, paper airplanes that were part of the collection of a beloved Augustana Professor, trains, cars, space toys, books, paper dolls, and more.

The Museum collection represents prehistory to the present.  We have Barbie, American Girls, Raggedy Ann, Teddies, Bean Bag plush, folk toys, and holiday items. We also support other not for profit charities, and welcome church groups, 4H, the Scouts, and others.

We look forward to reopening soon, and we thank our many supporters.