We Go on, somehow; the State of the Doll Museum

As I write, ADATM is in flux.  We can't open.  Our current location is small, for only two or three people and me at a time.  Having said that, we are more than six feet apart.  We are in the middle of arranging the closing for our new building.  I hope we can open.

We are ok, but we need the SBA loans we've applied for and our stimulus check.  We have no news on any of those fronts.  We have some resources for our museum, but we still have to pay rent and utilities where we are, tough when no one comes in.

Our Kickstarter campaign is being renewed, but not up again.  GoFundMe is doing nothing and our other fundraising is completely stagnant.  We understand, because everyone is in the same sinking financial boat.  We opened November 30th, Small Business Saturday, and had to Close March 25th, not even four months.

We're very, very grateful to those who have bought from DrEsToyMuseum, our Etsy store.

Thankfully, the proof for my new book, Thinking outside the Doll House, is back from the publisher.  I'm reviewing that and hope it will be published soon.

My magazine column is at a standstill; I've written four articles over the last year, and have not been paid for any.

Thankfully, no one is ill, but our life is very challenging.  With deep regret I announce that our dear friend, doll collector and shop owner, Diane Hoffman, has succumbed to covid 19 and other complications.  Her daughter, Rachel, is a dear friend with whom we frequently collaborate.

Our love and prayers go to Diane, Rachel, and their family.  Having had two funerals in one year, and all sorts of losses of close friends, my heart goes out to them.  I lost my mother 12 years ago, and I've not been the same, since.  The museum comforts me because she and my dad were behind it, and the dolls are as much theirs as mine.  My whole family helped to build this museum.  We traveled everywhere but Antarctica, and a very good family friend  went there so we're covered.

If you feel lost and lonely, please comment and reach out here, or on our Facebook pages, American Doll and Toy Museum, Dr. R, Antique Doll, Dr. E's Doll Museum, and Doll Universe.

Be safe; know we are all essential; we all contribute to our communities, we all matter, our lives are important.  God Bless!

Our Street

Steiff, Thanks, Michelle!

Vlad and international friends

Petite Princess and Antique bisque angel in one of our doll houses

Vintage bisque; my mom dressed

Panorama of lonely dolls in their museum

Vintage Barbies, German Bisque, and international

Alpine Art House

Inside Alpine House

The Doll Museum and Covid 19

What does a doll museum in quarantine do?

Like so many other small businesses and non profits; American Doll and Toy Museum is shut down until further notice.  We hope and pray Covid 19 will soon cease to be a threat for all of us, and that we will be safe, living our normal lives.

Meanwhile, here’s what we do working from home and behind closed doors:

1. We make doll hats and find shoes and clothing for dolls that need them.
2. We refurbish and repair our own dolls that have been on the back burner.  We are not, however, a doll hospital, only our dolls are patients.
3. We unpack boxes and suitcases we haven’t had a chance to unpack before.
4. We rearrange ourselves.
5. We work on doll book and other writing projects.
6. We look for grants and fundraisers to help the museum stay alive.
7. We plan for our newer, bigger building.
8. We make dolls and miniatures when we can.
9. We maintain our Etsy store, DrEsToyMuseum.
10. We dust and clean.
11. We read and study about dolls and toys.
12. We work on doll houses that need furnishing.
13. We maintain Pinterest boards, blog, work on our Facebook Pages, and stay in touch with friends and family virtually, and through writing old fashioned letters and cards.
14. We pray a lot.
15. We don’t give up.  Don’t you, either!

We don’t do these things in any special order.  Bee safe, be well, Blessed Easter, Blessed Passover, Blessed Greek Orthodox Easter.

Furnishing a doll house

Unpacking, moving, rearranging!

What's the Buzz? Beekeeping and Dolls!

In his classic Dolls and Puppets, Max von Boehn includes human shaped bee hives that are life-sized among this explorations of the word "doll."  Of course, there are other links, but some may surprise  you.  Sylvia Plath was interested in beekeeping and she wrote poems about bees.  Plath also collected paper dolls; her collection is part of her papers, housed in The Lilly Library.  Her body of work includes a poem or two about other dolls and manikins, too.

Of course, there are plush bees, and Anne Geddes inspired dolls of babies dressed as bee, Bee Keeping Barbie, and a bee keeping Our Generation doll.

One brand of honey is sold in a little bear shaped bottle, which I love to save.

Then there is artist Rob Keller of the Napa Valley Bee Company, www.napavalleybeecompany.com.

Keller takes care over one hundred sustainable bee colonies.  In one, he created a "mummified" queen bee inside a plush toy bee.  He often uses plastic toys in beehives; the bees surround them and build tiny "rooms" or mini hives.  They didn't like one statue of a plastic cow and fence and kept knocking down the toy.  In one really relevant work, Keller built  hive inside a Victorian doll house to show the necessary interconnection between humans and bees.   According to author Sarah Trigg, "he was simply looking for a way to seal three dimensional objects when he started placing them in beehives" (Studio Life 245).

For more, see Trigg's Studio Life; Rituals, Collections, Tools, and Observations on the Artistic Process.  You'd be surprised how many of the artists surveyed also collected toys and doll objects as part of their process.  Most were male artists, but there are women, too.  All are collectors of something, some objects will surprise you.  All will inspire you.  Like Rembrandt and Joseph Cornell, these artists used their collections as inspiration for their art.

For an enjoyable  read, try The Secret Life of Bees, and for research, look up the work Otto Plath did on bees and other subjects; he was Sylvia's father.  Of course, Plath's work is awesome, too.

If you think about it, it makes sense.  Dolls and bees both inhabit miniature worlds, albeit in different scales.

Madame Alexander Vintage Ladies of Fashion Doll Show and Tell | Virtual ...

FREE Virtual Doll Convention is Happening NEXT WEEK! | Beyond All Limits

Keep Smiling!

If ever we needed Shirley Temple, we need her optimism and sunny smile, now.  Yet, we can remember her, and other friends and family no longer with us by smiling in the face of this adversity, and by having hope.  I see the signs of hope; a fat robin the other day, two doves sleeping on the curb yesterday, late afternoon on a peaceful evening.   The occasional blue sky.

It is hard.  My anxiety is caused by the reactions of others.  Panicked buying, very slow restocking, crowds where there shouldn't be.  The rumors, of course.  I'd like to say welcome to the People's Republic of Illinois.  We are blessed, because we have maybe one case in a community of nearly 400,000, yet we are still enduring restrictions, fear, and shortages.  My family in California has it much worse.  My friends across the world can't step out of their homes.  I guess it's all relative, no puns.  So far, God willing, we are all healthy,  Yet, it's hard not to feel like we've all been cast in The Walking Dead.

The Museum, of course, is closed, shortly after it has been opened, and our plans are slowed down re our new location.  Everyone we need to work with on it is closed, but it will happen.  We're just delayed.

Her are some new doll pictures of museum citizens to make you all smile, and to amuse you in quarantine, self imposed or otherwise.  In this case, I thank God for technology which keeps us connected.

Try to check on your remote friends and family, even a text helps.  Stay Healthy, and God Bless!

Brooke by Heritage Galleries.  My mother promised her to me twenty+ years ago when
I graduated school.  She was in a store in Nashville, IL, part of an old Hotel, and full of
Dolls.  She was expensive then, and we just didn't make it back to get her.  Then I  lost my mom, and later, my dad.  I found her on line and bough her for all fo us.

I have been dressing dolls while being exiled.  I found this outfit
the other day, and it reads, "HOPE."

A Happy Corner of our Museum World

Barbies, Black Dolls, and Doll Houses

A recent addition that is also a rescue.  Happy Easter.

A recent vinyl Shirley from our large selection of them.  She smiles to remind us to do so, too.

Beautiful, vintage papier mache doll from Mexico, c. 1970.

Sweet Patti Playpal with Original Dress

Small dolls, include handmade cloth example on right from
South america.  My mother's picture is in the background; she's
sitting in her classroom at school.

Happy Kewpie

Vintage and antique cases

Antique Bear in an old dress; love her

We love elephants!

Illustration from my forthcoming book, Doll Collage. Snap shot
is for sale with others in our Etsy Store; Dr. Es Toy Museum.

Museum Wishlist; Happy Hina Matsuri Day!

The Museum, like her sister museums, has a wish list of exhibits and acquisitions. We will be adding to ours as we go, but here are some of our wishes. We also hope for peace in 2014, for happiness, grace, and good health for our families, and for our family of viewers and followers. We love you and are thankful for all of you and you comments. We are nearly 50,000 strong. Wishlist; we also welcome doll parts, vintage and antique, wax dolls, dolls in all conditions, even the hopeles. We tell the story of dolls from the sublime to the ridiculous. 1. The Metal or Pewter Head Huret 2. Another Huret in any condition, or any Huret items or memorabilia 3. The Huret Book 4. Book series The Collector's Voice 5. The book, On Dolls 6. Luella Hart's publicatons 7. Laurie Partridge doll 8. The Birds Barbie 9. Hugo Man of 1000 Faces 10. The 2013 Barbies 11. A Mason and Taylor Doll 12. A Bunraku puppet 13. Bru Bebe Teteur 14. Bru Bebe Gourmand 15. An early Qheen Anne or Georgian doll 16. Another felt Lenci, any character 17. Hawaiian Shirley Temple 18. The Patti Playpal Family 19. Ideal Tammy Fashions 20. 1979-80 Alien Monster 21. Living Dead Dolls Frozen Charlotte 22. Harriet Hubbard Ayres 23. Dressed Mexican Fleas 24. Kimport Dolls 25. Miss Bolin's Dolls 26. I. Walker doll and Memorabilia 27. A French Fashion Trousseau 28. The Great Man's Doll 29. Anne Rice's Bru 30. Japanese Girl Days Festival