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The Children's Museum - June 2009
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Saturday Morning class in Children's Museum, 1935 |
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Education has always played an important role
in the mission of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
When the museum opened in 1916 one of the two spaces on the museum's ground
floor, dedicated to work with children, was the Children's Museum. The goals
of the Children's Museum were to foster a "love and knowledge of art,"1
stimulate children's imaginations, and provide visual representations of
school lessons in design, history and geography.2 The space was
filled with child-sized tables and chairs and stocked with paper and crayons
to encourage drawing.
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Click on an image for a larger view
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Children's Museum, 1923 |
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The most popular sources of inspiration for
drawings in the Children's Room were the natural history collections and
ethnological models. A display of moths and butterflies attracted crowds
of children with their vibrant colors. The butterfly collection, donated
by Mrs. E.T.C. Miller, was arranged for beauty and design, not scientific
significance.
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Saturday Morning class in Children's Museum, 1937
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Children's Museum, 1931
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Model: Beaver Group, Children's Museum, 1921 |
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Nature models by Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Thayer depicted
insects, birds and mammals in their natural environment and interpreted
the colors and patterns as protective devices of nature. The Thayer models
were transferred to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in 1935. |
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Model: Pool in open swamp, Children's Museum, 1921
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Model: Grassy ground hill pasture, Children's Museum, 1921
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Model: Forest floor in sunlight, Children's Museum, 1921
Saturday Morning class in Children's Museum, 1935
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Model: Forest floor, Children's Museum, 1921
Model: Beaver Group, Children's Museum, 1921
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Model: Jungle (Tropical), Children's Museum, 1920 |
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Ethnological models by Dwight Franklin also inspired many
drawings. One series of three models showed life in three remote regions
of the earth: Eskimos attacking a polar bear, Arabs and camels at an oasis
in the desert, and a primitive home in the tropical jungle. A second series
of six models depicted the evolution of man through the Stone Age, dynasties
of Egypt, classical antiquity, middle ages, and the present. The Franklin
models, which were donated by Mrs. R. Henry Norweb and Mrs. J. K. McDowell,
were also transferred to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in 1949. |
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Model: Desert, Children's Museum, 1917
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Model: Arctic, Children's Museum, 1920
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Model: Prehistoric Man: Ape Man, Children's Museum, 1921
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Model: Prehistoric Man: A Man of the Old Stone Age, Children's Museum, 1921
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Model: Prehistoric Man: The Hunter Artist, Children's Museum, 1921
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Model: Prehistoric Man: The God Maker, Children's Museum, 1921
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Model: Prehistoric Man: The Temple Builders, Children's Museum, 1921
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Model: Prehistoric Man: Trade, Children's Museum, 1921
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Christmas Exhibit of Educational Toys, Lent by The Halle Bros., 1936 |
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In
addition to the models, the Children's Museum also held small art exhibitions.
Some of the exhibitions were in connection with the ethnological models,
showing the forms of art produced by people living in the regions depicted.
Others were rotating exhibitions of art that would be of special interest
to children, such as animal sculptures, dolls, children's book illustrations,
and musical instruments. |
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Musical Instruments from the Charles G. King Collection and Medieval Music Manuscripts lent by Otto F. Ege, 1938
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Musical Instruments from the Charles G. King Collection and Medieval Music Manuscripts lent by Otto F. Ege, 1938
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| The Children's Museum was a favorite project
of Frederic A. Whiting, the museum's first director. As the number of education
programs and their attendance continued to expand and outgrow the space
available, Whiting was committed to the idea of building a separate building
on the west side of the museum to house the Children's Museum. The new Children's
Museum would include classrooms, exhibition gallery for the education collection,
auditorium with stage and property rooms, a children's art library, room
for filing children's drawings, lunch room, conservatory, and an outdoor
natural amphitheater for plays and musical performances.3 He was ultimately
unsuccessful in raising the required funds for the building project and
by 1926 the plans were shelved. |
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Class in Children's Museum, 1928
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Saturday class in Junior Museum (nee Children's Museum), 1948
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Story Hour, Textile Room, 1933
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Due to ever increasing demand for education
space the Children's Museum was converted to classrooms by 1952. The need
for more space was finally alleviated when the Breuer wing opened in 1971
and was dedicated to arts education. The Breuer wing was renovated and re-dedicated
as the Center for Arts Education in 2006.
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1"Educational Work of the Cleveland Museum of Art" April 1927.
2"Opening of the Museum: Children's Museum," The
Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. February 1916, p 3.
3Records of the Director's Office: Frederic Allen Whiting, "Children's
Museum, 1921-1926" Memo Mrs. Dunn to the Director, 8 February 1924.
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