Museums

The Birthplace of Kermit The Frog Museum is a museum in Jim Henson’s boyhood town of Leland, Mississippi, just down the street from the Rainbow Connection Bridge. Henson was the mastermind behind The Muppets franchise (now owned by The Walt Disney Company) as well as Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and, of course, Muppet*Vision 3D. The permanent exhibition opened in August, 1991 and is presented by the city in cooperation with the Jim Henson Legacy and with the support of The Jim Henson Family. The museum is located over Deer Creek, where Jim would play while living in the area during his formative years, from 1936 to 1948. The exhibition is named after his most famous creation but is devoted to all aspects of Henson’s career, featuring family photographs lining the walls, an original Kermit on display, puppets and props from The Song of the Cloud Forest, and an impressive display of vintage Muppet merchandise. The building also serves as Leland’s tourist welcome center and host of the annual FrogFest each Fall. The museum is free to visit, with a $1 suggested donation. Address: 415 S Deer Creek Dr E, Leland, MS 38756 Visitor Information: Jim Henson’s Delta Boyhood Exhibit

Atlanta’s Center For Puppetry Arts is the United States’ largest non-profit organization dedicated to the art of puppetry. Inside the building lives a museum, research library, and theater which screens films and performs fully-staged puppet shows. The museum houses a massive collection of puppet artifacts including items from The Lion King on Broadway as well as a Jim Henson collection where a number of Muppets (an entity of Henson’s creations that has been owned by Disney since 2004) are on permanent display. For more information about the museum here, including tons of photos, check out our blog post: Highlights from the “Worlds of Puppetry” Museum in Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts Address: 1404 Spring St NW, Atlanta, GA 30309 Visitor Information: Center for Puppetry Arts

Named for its location 1,222 meters above sea level, the Finse 1222 is a full service hotel in the remote and tiny village of Finse, Norway. The town, only reachable by train or on foot, is the gateway to the spectacular Hardangerjøkulen glacier, known to locals as Hoth as it was the primary filming location for the 1980 classic, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. In 1979, cast and crew stayed at this hotel while filming scenes on the glacier, in the nearby valley, and in the immediate area on the back side of the hotel when snowfall was too intense to shoot further away. “If you turn the cameras around from that scene, there’s people out on their balcony sipping cocoa watching us” – Mark Hamill The hotel’s lobby has a display of Star Wars related memorabilia including a screen-used Rebel Trooper hat and a copy of The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. A room on the second floor houses a small museum displaying production photos and local news-clippings related to the filming of The Empire Strikes Back in Finse. A full-sized replica Snowtrooper costume is also on display and makes for a great […]

This public park in Queens, NY is most well known as being the site of the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair. It was at this World’s Fair where Walt Disney saw an opportunity to not only experiment with new theme park technology but to also test the east coast audience, in preparation for his Florida Project. The centerpiece of the World’s Fair and one of the only surviving structures today (along with the Queens Museum) is the iconic Unisphere. Imagineer Harper Goff had a hand in designing the famed armillary sphere which has been featured in major films including the epic opening to Iron Man 2 (2010) and plays a major role in Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland (2015) which recreated the fair for the big screen. You may also recognize the Unisphere as Peter Parker captures a glimpse of it from the highway while being driven around by Happy during Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). Read more about our visit to this park in our blog post: Re-Living Walt Disney’s Past: Exploring the Grounds of the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair. This location is mentioned in our blog post: Re-Living Walt Disney’s Past: Exploring the Grounds of the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair. Address: […]

The Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) is a museum in Queens, New York devoted to the history of film and television and educating its visitors on the process of filmmaking from its earliest form to the latest technological advancements. A number of Disney related items can be found on display in this museum including screen-used memorabilia from Star Wars and a permanent Jim Henson Exhibition with a variety of items from Muppet TV shows and movies. The Jim Henson Exhibition is a multi-media exhibit featuring nearly 300 objects on display including 47 puppets from Muppet movies and TV shows, Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal (1982), Labyrinth (1986) and more. A traveling version of this exhibit, curated by the museum, is currently touring the US. Check out our blog post, A Tour of The Jim Henson Exhibit: Imagination Unlimited, for more info on its current location. The exhibit also features a “Waldo” puppet control mechanism that was developed in order to let puppeteers remotely operate mechanical puppets like those found in Fraggle Rock and Dinosaurs. A later version of this was used to perform Waldo C. Graphic, the “spirit of 3D” who stars in Walt Disney World’s Muppet*Vision 3D. The Henson exhibit is also featured […]

This free museum located on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio is devoted to all things related to the US Air Force. Items on display include uniforms and memorabilia among their huge collection of airplanes. The museum has a permanent Disney Pins on Wings exhibit in their World War II Gallery. During the war, Walt established a team of six animators from his studio to assist in creating insignia for all branches of the US Armed Forces as well as Allied Military Units across the world. 1,200 designs were created and painted on the sides of planes, turned into patches for uniforms, and put onto letterhead for the troops. “The insignia meant a lot to the men who were fighting … I had to do it … I owed it to them.” – Walt Disney If you’d like to take a virtual tour of the exhibit, check out NMUSAFVirtualTour.com. Find the Disney exhibit by clicking forward to slide 11 of 23 in the World War II Gallery. If you’re in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, check out Rosie’s All-American Café, a quick-service dining location themed to Disney’s involvement during World War II. Address: 1100 Spaatz St, Dayton, OH 45431 Visitor Information: National […]

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. One of its most prized possessions is found in the California History Hall – it’s an original animation desk hand-built by Walt Disney in 1923 and used in his animation studio set up in his Uncle Robert’s garage. According to the plaque, Walt built this stand from an old packaging crate and a second-hand Pathé camera. He personally donated the stand to the museum in 1938, claiming that he had used it to film Steamboat Willie. “When things began to look hopeless, I then got my cartoon thing out again. And I built myself a cartoon stand out of plywood boxes and any lumber I could pick up” – Walt Disney Address: 900 W Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007 Visitor Information: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM)

The Main Branch of the New York Public Library is arguably the most famous of the city’s 92 branches in its system. The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building opened in 1911 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. The library’s Children’s Room contains a display of the original collection of dolls which inspired author A. A. Milne to write the Winnie-the-Pooh series of books which in turn inspired the Disney version. Read more about our visit to the library’s Children’s Room in our blog post: Meeting the Original Winnie-the-Pooh (and Tigger, too) You may also recognize the library from a number of classic films but the most notable Disney related one is Spider-Man (2002) – this is the scene where Uncle Ben gives Peter the “with great power comes great responsibility” speech before dropping him off at the library. Peter is really headed to an underground fight tournament to take on Bone Saw as Spider-Man. Read more about this location in our blog post: Meeting the Original Winnie-the-Pooh (and Tigger, too) Address: 476 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018 Visitor Information: New York Public Library

Newby Hall is an historic manor and garden in the city of Ripon, North Yorkshire. There are a number of galleries on the grounds including a Teddy Bear Exhibition which has an original Fozzie Bear puppet on display. Address: Newby Hall, Skelton-on-Ure, Ripon HG4 5AE, UK Visitor Information: Newby Hall & Gardens

The Queens Museum is the only surviving building from both the 1939 and 1964/65 World’s Fair, the latter of which had significant influence from Walt Disney and his Imagineers. Today, the building is home to the Queens Museum, an art and education center in the heart of Flushing Meadows Corona Park which features an exhibit devoted to displaying World’s Fair memorabilia. Read more about our visit to this museum in our blog post: Re-Living Walt Disney’s Past: Exploring the Grounds of the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair. This location is mentioned in our blog post: Re-Living Walt Disney’s Past: Exploring the Grounds of the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair. Address: New York City Building, Queens, NY 11368 Visitor Information: Queens Museum

Shanghai Museum of Glass opened in 2011 as a museum devoted to showcasing the history, technology, and art behind glass. In 2016, the museum added a Disney “fantasy castle” created by Spanish glassblower Miguel Arribas, co-founder of the Arribas Brothers chain of glass and crystal shops found in Disney Parks around the world. This is the largest glass-blown castle in the world! Made by Miguel Arribas, it took 500+ hours and over 30,000 glass loops. The Arribas fantasy castle is currently at The Shanghai Museum of Glass in China. #glasscastle #arribasbrothers #cystalarts pic.twitter.com/RkmQP6HWpS — Arribas Brothers (@arribasbrothers) December 30, 2017 Please note that in early 2020 the castle was damaged but is planned to be restored, so it may not be on display currently. Address: 685 Changjiang W Rd, Baoshan, Shanghai, China Visitor Information: Shanghai Museum of Glass

The National Museum of American History is part of the Smithsonian Institution whose main purpose is to collect, preserve, and display the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. The museum houses a number of Disney related items including the original Kermit the Frog puppet, a 1955 Disneyland Dumbo ride vehicle, a screen-used C-3PO, and Captain America’s shield among a variety of other items. Displays rotate frequently so be sure to check the website’s collection search page or call ahead if you have your heart set on seeing something specific. Address: 1300 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20560 Visitor Information: Smithsonian Institution