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The story surrounding the origin of Mickey Mouse is well-known. Walt, feeling defeated after losing the rights to produce films with the Oswald character that he created, was on a train ride home when he began thinking about a new star.

In Walt’s mind, this “boat ride” would be the perfect way to showcase the different cultures of children around the world – a clear nod to the work of UNICEF and the 1964/65 Fair’s theme of ‘peace through understanding’.

During Open Studio this month, we created a collective storyboard outlining some of the key plot moments from the story Peter Pan. A storyboard can be made fairly simply at home using easy-to-find materials. In addition to helping outline a story, storyboards can be used to organize ideas for an essay, a website, a theme park attraction, or a video game. Click through for instructions on how to create your very own original storyboard.

The Walt Disney Family Museum celebrates the 2013 Academy Awards season with recently compiled fun facts about the legendary Oscars® and Walt Disney. Twenty-six of these famed Awards are on view at the Museum including the celebrated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Oscar which is on exhibit through April 14, 2013 in the special exhibition, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic.

Though the museum has welcomed visitors since October 1, 2009, one of the questions we’re asked most frequently by guests remains: “Why is the museum here?” Well, for over a decade, Diane Disney Miller, Walt's daughter, considered how best to memorialize her father’s life story, and landed on what we now know as The Walt Disney Family Museum.

Join museum volunteer & guest blogger Lucas O. Seastrom as he gives you an in-depth look at the incredible impact that artist Eyvind Earle made on the animated classic, Sleeping Beauty.

Roy Disney was a financial genius. But he was more than that in the same way that Walt Disney was more than a film producer. Here is a chance to learn more about him through his own words and recollections of his contemporaries. Even a small sample of his correspondence to Walt shows the caliber of person that was Roy Oliver Disney.

In the fall of 1929, when Walt was in New York City meeting with his then-distributor, Pat Powers, he was repeatedly approached by a man with an unusual request. As Walt told the story, “… a fellow kept hanging around my hotel waving $300 at me and saying that he wanted to put the Mouse on the paper tablets children use in school.

We have hit the final days of counting down to our new major exhibition, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic on Thursday, November 15. We're kicking off our Seven Dwarf Days with the "leader" of the pac... Doc!

The story of Walt’s early romance with Lillian Bounds is a favorite tale among biographers and historians. Many are familiar with the tale of Walt driving Lilllian and the other Ink and Paint girl home when they would work late. Walt would drop off the other girl first, even though Lillian’s house was closer. However, there is more to the story...

Recently, there has been a lot of information published about women at the Disney Studio, with a fascination that they were involved in more than the traditional ink and paint roles. However, there is one group of women who worked at the Disney Studio that always seem to get slighted or forgotten: the Disney secretaries.

Through the eyes of Ray Bradbury, we catch a glimpse of the true measure of Walt Disney.

In 1918, when George M. Cohan song “Over There” entreated young men to “grab your gun, on the run...do your bit, show your grit...make your Daddy glad ...make your Mother proud,” thousands heeded this call. Four years into World War I, 16-year-old Walt Disney was one of them.

Ub Iwerks was a man of many talents. He was a prolific animator and a brilliant technical mind. He was Walt’s Swiss Army knife, a man who was to Walt whatever he needed him to be.

In observance of Memorial Day, internationally-respected Disney Historian Jim Korkis has provided the following insight into Walt’s Red Cross service.

With a heavy heart and deep sadness, we share that Ron Miller, husband of Diane Disney Miller, son-in-law of Walt Disney, President of the Board of Directors at The Walt Disney Family Museum, and owner of Silverado Vineyards, has passed in Napa, California at the age of 85.

Christmas is the most exciting time of the year, and not just because of Santa Claus. It is a wonderful time of celebration, of expectation, filled with glorious music. In our home, the excitement began with the Nativity set, which had been carefully packed away just after New Year's Day. It was brought out and all the figures carefully removed from the cotton in which they'd been wrapped...