Happy Birthday Toy and Miniature Museum

October 20, 2013

Who didn’t love “show and tell?!” Bringing a prized baseball card or pet hamster to share with classmates gave us that warm, fuzzy feeling that we now know as pride and happiness. We’re guessing that’s exactly what museum cofounders Mary Harris Francis (second from the left) and Barbara Marshall (first from the left) felt when they opened the Toy and Miniature Museum this week in 1982.

Both collected small things: Francis coveted antique toys, imperfect in scale and well-loved. Marshall sought artfully-crafted, fine-scale miniatures. After years of acquiring, they opened the museum in the Tureman mansion on the University of Missouri- Kansas City campus in order to share their vast collections.

Since then, the Toy and Miniature Museum has expanded twice, received donations from over 2,000 individuals, broken a Guinness World Record, and become a local treasure. As we transition to The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures, we look forward to a future filled with “show and tell.”