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This holiday season, The Walt Disney Family Museum led a group of local Presidio and Bay Area museums and organizations in collecting toys in support of the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots collection drive. Following in the generous shoes of Walt Disney himself, the Museum, its partners, and the Marines, collected numerous toys and books to share with less for fortunate families...

As part of our "12 Days of Christmas" special, we asked Disney historian, Paula Sigman Lowery, to tell us about Holidayland! When we look at the “Disneyland of Walt’s Imagination”—the wonderful model showcased at The Walt Disney Family Museum—we are enchanted by the miniature versions of the lands Walt and his artists created: Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Frontierland, Adventureland… plus Main Street, U.S.A. and New Orleans Square. But there’s one land that we don’t see, a land that existed for only five years: Holidayland.

The building that houses our Museum, 104 Montgomery Street, was built in 1899. Earlier that year, on February 15, a daughter was born in Spalding, Idaho, to Willard and Jeanette Bounds. Lillian Marie, my mother, was their tenth and last child. She grew up in Lapwai, Idaho, where the headquarters of the Nez Perce Tribal Reservation was located...

Our consulting historians Paula Sigman-Lowery and Jeff Kurtti teamed up to provide this remembrance of another of Walt’s great collaborators. A frequent analogy used in describing the creative collaboration of Walt Disney and his staff is that of a great conductor supervising and guiding every nuance of an artistically brilliant and technically outstanding symphony orchestra.

Spots…Spots…Spots! How did the Disney Animators draw thousands of spots in Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians and how did they make sure they always remained in the correct…spot? Disney Legends Don Iwerks and Floyd Norman, and legendary Disney Animator Andreas Deja provided the answers to these questions, and shared many fascinating behind-the-scenes stories about the production of the animated film to guests attending The Walt Disney Family Museum's The Art and Process of 101 Dalmatians event...

Last November, Disney released Epic Mickey, a Wii video game where Mickey Mouse tries to help bring his long lost brother Oswald the Lucky Rabbit back from the dark side. We were fortunate enough to be able to sit down with video game producer—and fellow Disney buff!— Warren Spector, to chat with him about the game and what it was like to bring these monumental characters to life in a game...

Join us this March for Mary Poppins-themed screenings, activities and fun! A full schedule of events can be found below. Tickets are available at www.waltdisney.org. Hope to see you here!

Each month, we ask a museum staff member to answer five questions about their position at The Walt Disney Family Museum, their fondest Disney memories, and other personal tidbits. This is the third in our series titled "What Do YOU Do?" and this month, we're highlighting John Stroh!

What makes Mary Poppins Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?

Our amazing model of Disneyland was built by Kerner Optical in San Rafael, California, a former division of George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic. It was completed and installed in Gallery 9 before the completion of the reading rail. The original installation of the rail was very tricky and time-consuming; it was a striking thing, winding down the length of the ramp, bright peacock blue, and full of information...

We asked Martin Salazar, our Art Conservator, to pick his favorite artifact from our Collection and write about why he chose it. He chose a unique artifact from the the movie Fantasia.

In observance of St. Patrick’s Day, our consulting historian, Paula Sigman Lowery, offers this tribute to Walt’s relationship with Ireland.

Throughout the month of March, The Walt Disney Family Museum is showing Walt Disney's classic film Mary Poppins. In celebration of this beloved movie, the Museum hosted an extraordinary afternoon with the film's costume and design consultant, Tony Walton. Brad Rosenstein, curator of the San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design, moderated the discussion on Tony's life and work. The conversation focused on Tony's designs for Mary Poppins, his firsthand experiences working with Walt, and a few behind-the-scenes secrets of the film...

Ever since I began working for the Museum in September 2009 and learned that we’d be offering a Film of the Month for our guests, I anxiously awaited the showing of Mary Poppins. It had always been my favorite Disney feature-length film, and when it was finally scheduled to run this month, I was thrilled. Not only did I have the chance to watch it again in our intimate Fantasia-themed theater, I also had the pleasure of introducing it to visitors throughout the month, and then making the book behind the movie the focus of our March Look Closer presentation...

New to Gallery 7 within The Walt Disney Family Museum is an enlarged display of the Museum’s tiny treasures, including several pieces of Walt’s unique collection, mentioned in this excerpt from Jim Korkis’s book, The Vault of Walt.

Often lost in the public perception of Walt Disney’s personality is his wicked sense of humor. He has frequently been characterized as simply a lowbrow, fond of barnyard humor and gags involving the rear end. Although Walt admitted, “ I can’t laugh at intellectual humor, you know? I want to be hit here. I’m just corny enough. I want to be hit right here in the heart...

English poet Alfred Austin said, “Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.” Our Consulting Historian Paula Sigman Lowery has turned the earth in the Disney garden, and her discoveries are pleasant revelations of Walt’s life at home.

We are saddened to note the passing of Collin Campbell, who died in Florida on April 2. He was a layout and background artist in the Disney Animation Department, and was a long-time art director and concept artist for Walt Disney Imagineering.

You can't talk about Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland without acknowledging the contributions of artist, Mary Blair. We asked Michael Labrie, Director of Collections, to share with us the story of the acquisition of the Mary Blair collection .