An Amazing Miniature World

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During our recent trip to Kentucky, Ray, one of our granddaughters, and I peeked into the world of horse enthusiasts at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington and the world of miniature enthusiasts at the Great American Dollhouse Museum in Danville.

In 2006 dollhouse museum owner and curator Lori Kagan-Moore purchased an historical building constructed by the Works Progress Administration. The building has had many uses over its 85-year history. Today it houses a timeline of dollhouses from U.S. history, a miniature town, and a large gift shop where you can find everything from tiny cans of food, to tiny tools for a dollhouse toolbox, to ornate bedroom suites and other household furniture. I can’t begin to describe them all. Need a dollhouse spinning wheel?

How about a brand new bedroom suite . . .

. . . or items to fit out a new nursery down to a pad for the changing table and blankets crocheted by hand?

Here are a few examples of the dollhouses. I am sorry for the poor picture quality. The dollhouses are in cases behind glass and it is hard to photograph through glass without glare and reflections. This dollhouse represents salt box architecture and furnishings from colonial times.

Notice the detail in this bedroom—rugs; a handmade blanket; a basket, wooden box, and glass bowl on shelves, and an embroidered pillow on the bed.

This soda shop was once a general store. Now it is ready for Christmas with a nativity in the window and a wreath on the door.

The Hip Hop Shop is ready to sell musical instruments, records, and sheet music for Christmas presents.

This doctor is happy to give a checkup to a little girl’s dolly. See his mortar and pestle, his blinds at the window, and his degree on the wall.

This fancy lady’s dog is resting under the settee. Her work table is ready for the next time she sits down to needlepoint. Her teapot, sugar bowl, and cup and saucer are ready for a break. See her fancy shoes on the floor beside her chair?

In this contrasting domestic scene, Grandma and her granddaughter bake cookies. Grandpa sits on the porch with a dog in his lap. A favorite rooster peeks in the screen door. A grandson feeds the dog on the floor. If you look very closely, you can find a philodendron in the window, a bar of soap beside the sink, home canned garden produce in the cabinet, cookie cutouts on the stove, a bowl of milk for the kitty, and a hand meat grinder behind Grandma.

This cooking scene even has green onions, a partially peeled potato, sliced boiled eggs, and eggshells!

See the gloves, feathered hat, and button up shoes.

Look at the tiny photo album on the floor.

Here are more indoor details and some outdoor ones that I found fascinating. I hope you do, too.

Did you see the pansies and the orchid in the windows?

To my surprise, Ray was as fascinated by the dollhouse museum as we girls. It was no surprise that his favorite room and mine was from the years of our childhood. Daddy holds a Life magazine. The children play Monopoly®. A crocheted afghan is draped on the back of the couch down from the set of Tinkertoys®. Mama emerges from the kitchen which is equipped with a Corningware® casserole dish, a stack of copper Jello® molds, and a box of Twinkies®.

I especially enjoyed this neighborhood scene where you could see the house fronts around a greenspace and walk around the sides to look inside the houses room by room by room.

It would be unnerving to think that passersby could go around to the back and peek into the rooms in our houses, but what a blessing that God does see inside.

Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I get up;
You understand my thought from far away.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
Psalm 139:1-3

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