When you step underneath the wavy blue arch at the entrance
to The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, you enter the fantastic mind of Theodor
Geisel – aka Dr. Seuss.
Like Geisel’s legendary children’s stories, this new
Springfield, Massachusetts museum pulls you from reality and leads you on a
rhyming, rhythmic romp through the farthest reaches of the imagination, where
the places are preposterous, the characters are colorful and the creatures are curious.
And much like Geisel’s most well known books, when you get to the end you may
be thinking a little bit differently about the world around you.
Opening this past June 2017 in Geisel’s hometown, the museum
is a dual tribute to the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss and to the man who
thought it all up.
Housed in a stone manse on the grounds of the Springfield
Museums, The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum overlooks a grassy commons that
also is home to the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture
Garden. A series of massive bronze sculptures depicting some of Geisel’s most
beloved characters, and the author himself, this beautiful bronze playground
was created by Geisel’s step-daughter, artist Lark Grey Dimond-Cates.
The statues of Horton, Sally, Thing 1
and Thing 2 and more, emerging from the pages of a book while Geisel, the Cat
in the Hat and a mischievous Grinch stand by, convey the site’s devotion to
imagination and interactivity. It is a goal carried successfully throughout the
museum itself.
Dr. Seuss’s creations envelop visitors
upon first entrance on the museum’s main floor. Classic Seussian colors are splashed
around the interior, bookshelves abound, characters hide in the corners and murals
adorn the walls, depicting scenes and quotes from various books.
The first room to the right is
dedicated reading space, brightly decorated like, Oh, the places you’ll go!, complete with numerous copies of many
Dr. Seuss books. The first rooms to the left show how childhood in Springfield
inspired Geisel’s later work. A large touch screen allows children to
draw and write right on the walls, just like young Ted used to do in his own
bedroom. Next to it is a small-scale playhouse designed to look like the Geisel
family bakery.
Venturing further, you find yourself interacting with some
of Dr. Seuss’s most beloved tales. Horton, the Cat in the Hat and others come
alive in life-sized models, perfect for photos. Children can test their
engineering skills as they stack foam turtles next to a sculpture of Yertle the
Turtle; or try out a few rhymes of their own with a Green Eggs and Ham word game.
The interactive exhibits strewn around the facility are fun,
but aren’t just for play. Like many of Geisel’s stories, the games and displays
ask children and adults alike to use their imagination as a tool to think about
and answer the questions of youth and sometimes dilemmas apparent in the
broader world we inhabit. A display of The Lorax, for example, asks children to
help separate trash from recyclables, recalling that story’s conservationist theme.
Wandering down to the basement level, we found a large room
dedicated to crafts and projects, as well as a comfortable reading area and
library. That day the museum was asking kids to color socks for the Fox in
Socks, and play memory matching games.
If the basement and first floors encapsulate all the magic
that came from Geisel’s mind, the top floor illuminates a behind-the-scenes
view of it.
The upper level drills down into the man behind the rhyme,
shining a brightly colored light on his family tree (actually painted on the
wall in typical Dr. Seuss fashion), his habits and his process. Housing items
and memorabilia from Geisel’s home and office, from his writing tools and
drawing desk to his sitting chair, the top floor is a museum-style tribute to
the eccentricities that spouted the legendary books.
One room recreates Geisel’s living room, with the author’s
own furniture and artwork. Included are worn and torn books, flamboyant hats
and toys, and even his beloved stuffed toy dog Theophrastus (which makes an
appearance in various family photos hung throughout the floor’s exhibit space).
Another space at the top of the staircase recreates Geisel’s work studio, with
its oversized central drafting table, a vibrantly colored painting and a worn
and torn red high-back chair where a Cat in the Hat doll now sits in place of
its creator.
Perhaps the most interesting room in the entire complex,
though, is the yellow walled hall housing many of Geisel’s drafts, letters,
correspondences, notes and more. Here, a large central table is littered with old
photos and documents, some showing early sketches that one can imagine evolving
into the basis for some of Geisel’s more famous characters and creatures. Other
papers on the table and hung framed on the walls show his unique sense of humor,
witty business style and his devotion to family and friends.
The third floor gives a level of insight into a writer’s
mind rarely available for a virtuoso. One handwritten note, dripping with
humor, addresses the writing process: “With or without eyedrops, writing and
drawing is an unpleasant experience which I find myself avoiding. I am thinking
of taking up paper hanging or mushroom farming as a new profession.”
Since the museum is new and busy, timed advance tickets are
available online. But because the Dr. Seuss museum is located within the
expansive Springfield Museum complex, a ticket for the Seuss museum also
provides access to the other museums on property, which includes art museums, a
science museum and more.
We enjoyed wandering through the science museum, gawking at
the massive T-Rex sculpture and fossilized dinosaur bones. There was also a
small but interactive section on the Earth and the solar system, including
telescopes, a black hole and an earthquake table.
But Dr. Seuss was the highlight.
As we finished our visit and strolled out, back through the
sweeping bright blue archway, I thought of one of my favorite Dr. Seuss lines,
from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish:
“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are
everywhere.”
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