From tmc5a@pluto.clinch.edu Wed Apr 10 15:10:10 1996
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 11:22:46 EST
From: "Thomas M. Costa" <tmc5a@pluto.clinch.edu>
Reply-To: H-Net DISCUSSION LIST FOR LOCAL AND STATE HISTORY
     <H-LOCAL@MSU.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list H-LOCAL <H-LOCAL@MSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Children's Museums

From: Genevieve G McBride <gmcbride@csd.uwm.edu>
Subject: Re: Children's Museums
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 10:16:32 -0600 (CST)

 Re children's museums in the U.S., the most recent -- and a potential source
 for research -- may be in Milwaukee, where the Betty Brinn Children's Museum
 opened less than a year ago.  The city was said to be the last major city
 (meaning top 20 or so in population size, I think) in the U.S. to have one.
 This tidbit and much other information was made available by the three women
 who initiated and organized the fund-raising campaign to my students in
 public relations, who researched and designed a marketing plan for the
 museum.  Those remarkable women (all "housewives" after remarkable careers
 as an Emmy-winning PBS producer, a public relations agency account executive,
 etc.) and/or on-site marketing staff can be reached at the museum for leads
 on exhaustive research they conducted into U.S. and European counterparts.
 (BTW, there has been a children's discovery center in Milwaukee for more
 than a decade, but it was essentially science-related.  There also have been
 many commercial counterparts in the area -- perhaps an interesting aspect
 of the student's research paper? -- but competition is closing them now.)

 On the aspect of fundraising for such museums, the student might also want
 to contact the Madison (Wis.) Children's Museum, one of the most successful
 around, I'm told, owing to its support from Pleasant Rowlands of the Pleasant
 Company, creator of the "American Girls" dolls.  Almost a decade ago, she
 offered to provide the museum with inventory overruns for a discount sale.
 That started an annual event that made Madison look like a matronly Woodstock
 as as many as 6000 mothers in minivans from as many as forty states came as
 much as three days ahead to camp out for first dibs.  Near-riots ensued.
 Finally, last year, phone reservations were required.  Reports of scalping
 front-of-the-line tickets caused almost as much uproar as the skullduggery
 the year before regarding Badger ticket reservations for the Rose Bowl.
 Press coverage of this brouhaha were in Madison and Milwaukee papers (contact
 the Legislative Reference Bureau in either city for access to clippings).

 Some of us in Wisconsin take our doll collections -- and our Children's
 Museums -- almost as seriously as others take their football.  Or both.

 Genevieve G. McBride
 The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

 >
 >           INQ:  A first-rate undergraduate student  here is applying
 >           for a research grant designed for undergrads.  She wants to
 >           study children's museums in Europe and the U.S. I will
 >           mentor her, and while I know something about museums from
 >           their connection with world's fairs, I know nothing about
 >           children's museums.  Any help in locating relevant works
 >           about the museums or suggestions for nifty topics to search
 >           out would be appreciated.  My student is going to Europe
 >           this summer, so sources there could be useful too.  We have
 >           access to the Greenwood Press reference book on children's
 >           museum, zoos, and discovery centers.
 >
 >           Thanks!!
 >
 >           John Findling
 >           Indiana University Southeast
 >           New Albany, IN
 >           jfindlin@iusmail.ius.indiana.edu
 >
 >           or reply directly to Brook Dutko at
 >           bdutko@iusmail.ius.indiana.edu
 >