The family and I took a trip to Kansas City this past weekend and one of the places we visited was the Toy & Miniature Museum of Kansas City. Last year the museum celebrated 30 years. I took over 200 photos so I will just share some of the highlights in several posts. I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. Everything was behind plexiglass or glass and I had to turn off the flash and the lighting wasn't all that great.
The museum is located inside a historic mansion on the campus of the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC). Mary Harris Francis and Barbara Marshall were both collectors who were encouraged by friends and family to merge their private collections and create a museum. Francis specialized in dollhouses while Marshall enjoyed the fine scale miniatures. The museum building is built around what was once a private home known as the "Tureman Mansion". Additional exhibit space has been added over the years to house the huge collection. The museum will close at the end of this year to undergo renovations and expansion and will re-open as the National Toy and Miniature Museum.
This post will include a few of the over 100 Dollhouses.
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| I found this picture online with the house opened up |
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| I like the clever way they displayed the front of the house above |
I really liked this realistic Victorian house - note the art glass window built into the chimney
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| Quite a few items from Germany |
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| This one was labeled 6 Story Hotel or Apartment 1903 |
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| These were some detailed balsa wood models at different scales |
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| one of my favorites was this Tynietoy House from the 1920's |
Oh my goodness! I get so excited looking at things like this actually makes my stomach ache! LOL I just might have to make a trip if not to this museum but to any one. I cant wait to see the rest...buckling myself up like I am on a roller-coaster ride! :-)
ReplyDeleteI like them all but the apartment dollhouse just blew me away I never knew things like that existed, thank you for sharing your photos!
ReplyDeleteWow! What a Fantastic museum!!! I have Serious Dollhouse Envy now! LOL! That first one is Enormous!!! What scale were the dolls for it? Can you imagine trying to play with anything in the upper levels? So many Amazing details to look at! I imagine I could spend all day and still not see enough! Thanks for sharing, Troy!
ReplyDeleteIt is huge! It's over 9 feet tall. It is called the Coleman house. They have a tradition where they open it for one day each year. Otherwise, you have gaze through the windows.
Deletelove this...thanks for the wonderful photos
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