Nostalgia and the World at Small: The Grand Re-opening of The National Museum of Toys & Miniatures

The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures reopened its doors the morning of Saturday,

August 1st after a year and half long, eight million dollar renovation. Visitors are now invited

in to explore the museum’s two levels of craftsmanship, childhood, and history. With a new

improved exhibition strategy and a playful marketing approach, the museum has continued its

mission of delighting and educating children and adults through the means of nostalgia, narrative,

and play. It was the sunny Sunday morning after The National Museum of Toys & Miniatures’

reopened that I was able to venture back into the small wondrous institution. I hadn’t experienced

the museum in well over a year and was extremely curious to see the changes that had been

implemented since closing their doors to the public. As a studio artist and filmmaker focused

on themes of childhood, nostalgia, and history, I had been waiting not eagerly, but anxiously

since the opening date had been announced.

As reluctant as I was to not let go of the small somewhat cluttered galleries of the museum’s

past, the renovations truly did not disappoint. The space had been definitively split into two parts;

the upstairs containing toys and the downstairs containing fine miniatures. While it had been

organized in a similar fashion beforehand, the spaces now contained interactive and audio visual

features that allowed for a more immersive educational experience. Buttons, lights, and video

clips accompanied selected toys and miniatures throughout the galleries, as well as, hands on

opportunities to interact with objects and processes. As a frequenter of museums, I tend to find

these flashier components somewhat distracting if I already understand the process and history

of whatever is on display. However, as I watched guests spin a large zoetrope in the optical illusion

room, control a scanner that provided construction information about selected objects in a toy

gallery, and place tiny clock hands on a miniature grandfather clock in the artist studio, I couldn’t

help but join in on the fun.

Along with these new interactive features was a fresh curatorial approach. Before the

renovations, the museum kept about 99% of its collection on display. The galleries and

displays were somewhat cluttered and cramped. To me, visiting the museum in its previous

state was somewhat like visiting an enchanting yet overwhelming antique store. Everything

was beautiful but in very close proximity, and aside from a few subtle organizational

implementations, the objects from a curatorial standpoint did not inform one another. Today,

the museum has taken a much more focused approach. The collection has been thoughtfully

arranged to portray specific historical narratives and contextual information. Overall the new

layout allows for a more informed look at the collection without overwhelming visitors.

While experiencing The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures’ fresh and fun new

approach made my visit enjoyable, the real success of this renovation lies in the

enhancement of the museum’s continued ability to engage those of all ages in the history of

play. Despite children having primary functional use for toys, The National Museum of Toys

and Miniatures seems to lean more toward inspiring nostalgia and thoughtfulness in adults.

Simultaneously the museum allows its younger guests to thrive in their childhood wonder

with playful interactivity, and challenge its adult visitors to consider the role that play had on

their own childhood, and what toys communicate about the world at large.

Toys and miniatures have long been used as teaching materials and objects of control. It is

through toys and the act of play that stories are told, religious traditions taught, and gender roles

determined. It is through the act of crafting miniatures that allows us to create space like yet

unlike our own; it is something small, attainable, challenging. It creates an opportunity for means

of perfection and reinterpretation. However, with these new life skills and environmental rulings

comes a deep sentimentality formed for these objects, one that seems to reverberate throughout

the galleries of this museum. Why is it that we can feel so much empathy for these dollhouse

rooms and stuffed animals left long abandoned? While many of these objects served a rational

purpose in their functional use, many of them were coveted as heirlooms and companions; just as

families today continue to preserve and pass down the toys of of older generations.

Nostalgia is the key component at work in The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures, and

the curators and collectors here seem to be well aware. They are relying on these

historic toys to create a sense of longing in viewers. By expanding their collection while

under renovation, the museum seems to have more emphasis on mid-century items from the

1950s and 60s, and now features toys up through the early 2000s; even those in their teens

and early twenties can view the objects of their own childhood on display. My Size Barbie,

Star Wars collectables, Fisher Price’s Cassette Recorder, and even Bratz dolls made it into

the contemporary collection.

The museum’s current special exhibition, Pedal to the Medal invites guests to experience the

evolution of toy cars during the era when fascination and use for automobiles was

developing in America. The exhibition contains a mock 1950s car

display room, a mid-century front yard – complete with midcentury house, mailbox, two car

garage – and white lounge chairs in which guests can lay back, relax and watch a documentary

about the subject matter. The exhibition allows guest to immerse themselves in the era while

learning about in the objects.

An additional special exhibition, Messengers of Goodwill did not have the same amount of

care taken into its presentation. In all honesty, I didn’t even realize it was a special exhibition

until I recognized Miss Shizuoka, a Japanese friendship doll on loan from the Kansas City Museum,

and began digging around on the internet until I could resolve my confusion. Messengers of

Goodwill displays five Japanese dolls used to establish and mend diplomatic relations in

the 1920s. While the subject matter seems incredibly interesting the presentation seemed

unclear in the small space used for the display. Childrens’ drawings of these dolls were also

framed and hung in the small gallery. They were charming but seemed somewhat like an

afterthought amongst the display cases and wall graphics.

In providing emphasis on the toys of today’s aging generations the museum has created

inclusiveness about itself; allowing visitors to not only extend their empathy for objects of

generations past but to reminisce in their own memories of playthings as children. While this

seems to be a logical move, at times iconic mid-century American themes are too easy. Not

to imply that much older objects are not well represented; they make up a large portion, if not

over half of the overall collection. It is important to expand perspective beyond the toys

represented in America throughout our easily identifiable history and today. Messengers of

Goodwill is a good step in this direction; at the most it allows guests to understand the cultural

politics associated with these objects, and at its least it exposes us to another culture’s use for

toy objects.It is important for the museum to continue to focus on unfamiliar playthings from

other parts of the world. The museum already has the ability to instill a feeling of sentimentality

toward the majority of the objects in the space. This emotional response can be used to further a

stronger connection to the way other cultures experience play.

Toys and miniatures are what once allowed us to understand the world; they determined our

roles, sparked our childhood imaginations, and let us explore space through fine scaled

potential. Toys are the world to us as children; miniaturized mock versions of the road to

adulthood. The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures in their new released collection

book quotes Alberto Manguel’s, Magic in the Land of Toys in stating: “Everything is here.

Comfort, conflict, nightmares, experience, hierarchies, anarchy, freedom, discipline,

beginnings, adventures, prejudices, creation, scientific research, social rituals, prohibition,

transgression, sex, metaphysics, knowledge , death. This nutshell is the world what isn’t here

doesn’t exist.”

Through The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures’ newly remodeled landscape, take

care to observe your world within the world.