Children of Japan

Children of Japan
Courtesy, R. John Wright

Hinges and Hearts

Hinges and Hearts
An Exhibit of our Metal Dolls

Tuxedo and Bangles

Tuxedo and Bangles

A History of Metal Dolls

A History of Metal Dolls
Now on Alibris.com and In Print! The First Book of its Kind

Alice, Commemorative Edition

Alice, Commemorative Edition
Courtesy, R. John Wright

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Emma, aka, La Contessa Bathory

Emma, aka, La Contessa Bathory
Her Grace wishes us all a Merry Christmas!

Annabelle

Annabelle

Emma Emmeline

Emma Emmeline
Our New Addition/fond of stuffed toys

Cloth Clown

Cloth Clown

Native American Art

Native American Art

the triplets

the triplets

c. 1969 Greek Plastic Mini Baby

c. 1969 Greek Plastic Mini Baby
Bought Athens on the street

Iron Maiden; Middle Ages

Iron Maiden; Middle Ages

Sand Baby Swirls!

Sand Baby Swirls!
By Glenda Rolle, courtesy, the Artist

Glenda's Logo

Glenda's Logo
Also, a link to her site

Sand Baby Castaway

Sand Baby Castaway
By Glenda Rolle, Courtesy the Artist

A French Friend

A French Friend

Mickey

Mickey
From our friends at The Fennimore Museum

2000+ year old Roman Rag Doll

2000+ year old Roman Rag Doll
British Museum, Child's Tomb

Ancient Egypt Paddle Doll

Ancient Egypt Paddle Doll
Among first "Toys?"

ushabti

ushabti
Egyptian Tomb Doll 18th Dynasty

Ann Parker Doll of Anne Boleyn

Ann Parker Doll of Anne Boleyn

Popular Posts

Tin Head Brother and Sister, a Recent Purchase

Tin Head Brother and Sister, a Recent Purchase
Courtesy, Antique Daughter

Judge Peep

Judge Peep

Hakata Doll Artist at Work

Hakata Doll Artist at Work
From the Museum Collection

Japanese Costume Barbies

Japanese Costume Barbies
Samurai Ken

Etienne

Etienne
A Little Girl

Happy Heart Day

Happy Heart Day

From "Dolls"

From "Dolls"
A Favorite Doll Book

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Jenny Wren

Jenny Wren
Ultimate Doll Restorer

Our Friends at The Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum

Our Friends at The Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum

Baby Boo 1960s

Baby Boo 1960s
Reclaimed and Restored as a childhood Sabrina the Witch with Meow Meow

Dr. E's on Display with sign

Dr. E's on Display with sign

Dolls Restored ad New to the Museum

Dolls Restored ad New to the Museum
L to R: K*R /celluloid head, all bisque Artist Googly, 14 in. vinyl inuit sixties, early celluloid Skookum type.

Two More Rescued Dolls

Two More Rescued Dolls
Late Sixties Vinyl: L to R: Probably Horseman, all vinyl, jointed. New wig. R: Effanbee, probably Muffy, mid sixties. New wig and new clothing on both. About 12 inches high.

Restored Italian Baby Doll

Restored Italian Baby Doll
One of Dr. E's Rescued Residents

Dolls on Display

Dolls on Display
L to R: Nutcrackers, Danish Troll, HItty and her book, Patent Washable, Mechanical Minstrel, Creche figure, M. Alexander Swiss. Center is a German mechanical bear on the piano. Background is a bisque German costume doll.

A Few Friends

A Few Friends
These dolls are Old German and Nutcrackers from Dr. E's Museum. They are on loan to another local museum for the holidays.

Vintage Collage

Vintage Collage
Public Domain Art

The Merry Wanderer

The Merry Wanderer
Courtesy R. John Wright, The Hummel Collection

The Fennimore Doll Museum

The Fennimore Doll Museum

Robert

Robert
A Haunted Doll with a Story

Halloween Dolls Displayed in a Local Library

Halloween Dolls Displayed in a Local Library

The Cody Jumeau

The Cody Jumeau
Long-faced or Jumeau Triste

German Princesses

German Princesses
GAHC 2005

A Little PowerRanger

A Little PowerRanger
Halloween 2004

The Island of the Dolls

The Island of the Dolls
Shrine to Dolls in Mexico

Based on the Nutshell Series of Death

Based on the Nutshell Series of Death
Doll House murder

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A lovely dress

A lovely dress

Raggedy Ann

Raggedy Ann
A few friends in cloth!

Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum, WI

Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum, WI
Pixar Animator's Collection

Little PM sisters

Little PM sisters
Recent eBay finds

Dressed Mexican Fleas

Dressed Mexican Fleas

Really old Dolls!

Really old Dolls!

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Skyward November 202 Dr. David Levy OSIRIS-REXx

 From our guest blogger, Dr. David Levy.  We have a variety of space toys and memorabilia in our museum, even a few meteorites and model rockets.  We dedicate this post to the memory of our friend, teacher, and Mentor, Dr. Roald Tweet, d. Nov. 4, 2020.

Skyward for November 2020

 

David H. Levy

 

Hello, Bennu!

 

          Not long ago OSIRIS-REx, a spacecraft sponsored by the University of Arizona and flown by NASA gently touched the surface of asteroid No. 101955, an asteroid named Bennu, tried to grab some material, and then quickly took off again.  It was the first try, but it was a huge success!  The craft gathered more than twice what was expected—so much that some small pieces of material started to leak out.

Of course, if all the sample leaked out, then there was no sample.  But that won’t happen.  NASA plans to transfer the material to a safe storage container earlier than expected, and then the sample will be safe. 

          The mission, run jointly by NASA and the University of Arizona,  cost the U.S. taxpayers about eight hundred million dollars, plus about 185 million for the launch aboard an Atlas V rocket.  The Osiris-Rex is an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer.  Asteroid Bennu is an interesting choice.  Bennu was the name for an Egyptian mythological bird associated with creation, the Sun, and rebirth.  But much as the name might inspire us to look back at the early days of our solar system (which it does), that’s not the real reason this particular asteroid was chosen.  Bennu is a C-type asteroid. It is also a sort of time capsule dating back to the birth and early  evolution of the solar system.  C is for carbonaceous asteroid, but it is a B sub-type because it is primitive.  The reason for this is that it had undergone almost no geological change since it formed.

          Especially if you pay taxes to the government of the United States, you may wonder why more than 800 million dollars was sent to this distant spot of lightb in the sky.  I could begin to answer this by saying that Bennu’s sample will teach us about what the solar system was made of at its formation.  From that, Bennu could give us a healthy idea about what the Earth itself was like at its birth.  Sometime after it was formed, its orbit changed so that now, every few dozen years it gets pretty close to Earth.  There is a very small chance that it might hit Earth in the distant future.  Dolores Hill, a long-time member of the OSIRIS-Rex team adds: “NASA sent this mission to Bennu, a primitive body, to return a pristine, protected sample so we could better understand the beginning and history of the solar system, formation of organic compounds important to life, and understand how Main-belt asteroids migrate to the inner solar system to become Near-earth asteroids.”

 

          All this is fine, but couldn’t that money be better spent on Earth, to feed the starving, cure those afflicted with coronavirus, house the homeless, and do all the other things we thought we could drop when we decided to go to the Moon in the 1960s?

          Yes, it could.  Except for one thing.  Going to the Moon seemed pointless until we all were glued to television, watching breathlessly as one human stepped onto the surface of another world.  Dear readers, we are explorers.  It is in our blood, our DNA, in our hopes and dreams.  And in the midst of this horrible pandemic, a small piece of human-built machinery tapped the surface of a distant world and grabbed a sample.  Indeed, space journeys like this one help make life worth living.  We live here.  This is our neighborhood. We reach for the stars.

 

Figure 1.  This photograph of asteroid Bennu   It is a a composite of
images taken from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on December 2, 2018.

 

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