The Walt Disney Company has been innovating and inspiring since 1923, and in celebration of its 90th anniversary, the company and Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry have partnered to create the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit.
Encompassing everything from animation tools and techniques to the history of Disneyland, the exhibit allows visitors a peek into the life of Walt Disney and the iconic company he created. The display opened at the museum on Wednesday, exactly 90 years after Disney’s establishment, and will remain there until May 4. Museum personnel said the connection between MSI and Disney is apparent.
“We looked at our own mission to inspire inventive genius in everyone who comes here, and if you look at Walt’s life, it’s easy to see which moments connect,” said David Woody, the museum’s director of design and development. “He was not just a dreamer. He was a doer.”
In addition to biographical information on Disney, other tangible artifacts from his life are on display at the museum. Viewers can see Disney’s actual desk, complete with the trinkets he was inspired by, as well as some of his original sketches and awards.
Artifacts from Disney himself aren’t the only pieces of history featured. Woody said the exhibit includes more than 300 relics from the company’s nine decades.
These items include costumes worn by Amy Adams and James Marsden in “Enchanted” and the 1957 “Zorro” outfit worn by Guy Williams. Woody said part of the appeal of the exhibit is its ability to engage a wide audience.
“It’s for people of all ages because there are different levels of the exhibit,” Woody said.
Another such level is hands-on. Every 20 minutes, a Disney-trained cartoonist teaches visitors to draw in Disney’s style at the Animation Academy. There, easy-to-follow instructions guide the making of Mickey Mouse. Interactivity is also integrated into the exhibit through iPads with animation technology activities as well as the chance to build a villain’s castle out of magnets.
Woody said some of the magic of the exhibit is in the way it transcends time and generations. The Walt Disney Company hopes to continue that legacy.
“(The exhibit) celebrates 90 years of the past, but this is really just the beginning,” said Nicholas Vega, manager of collections and exhibits for the Disney Archives.
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