The Roald Dahl Museum, Wednesday, July 9th

For our independent research day on Wednesday, Karen and I went to the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, and also visited the cemetery where the author is buried. Admitedly, I am a huge Roald Dahl fan, so I was pretty keen to check out how the museum was set-up, and what information the curators had chosen to include.

The museum is housed in Great Missenden where Dahl lived for 36 years and wrote all of children's books and most of his short-stories for adults. Dahl's widow, Felicity, still lives in Gipsy House, their family home, while the museum is located nearby on the high street. Before it was made into a museum in 2001, the building was (at times) a bank, a hairdresser's, a dance hall and a public inn. According to rumor, Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister, once stayed there. While the museum is largely dedicated to Dahl's children's literature and books, there is also some information about his stories for adults. Overall, however, the museum is very clearly geared toward appealing to children. The museum is also just down the street from the local library, which served as the inspiration for the library Matilda visits in the book titled after her name.

As mentioned above, the Roald Dahl Museum was established in 2001, and, accordingly, the display is quite modern and eye-catching. At the entrance, visitors are given full-color guides that contain maps, information, pictures, and questions relating to each of the three roomsthat house the collection. The handout serves then, as both information source and activity sheet, making viewing of the museum more like an interactive game instead of separate observation.

The first room is called the "Boy Gallery," so named for Dahl's autobiography Boy. This room highlights Dahl's childhood and includes original photgraphs, letters, speech notes, school work, report cards, toys, et cetera, from his youth, as well as remembrances of his youth recorded in old age. This is a nice beginning to the exhibits, because we get a sense of Dahl as a person, and how his upbringing and childhood impacted his writing style. The doors to the room are giant Wonka chocolate bars, and the room itself is painted in vibrant colors and covered in comic/illustration-like photos and pictures. Traditionally, the light is low to preserve the original documents in the cases, however the addition of props that support visually what is described in the text documents is decidedly modern. Additionally, this room, indeed, as in all the others, contains copies of the books mentioned in the displays for visitors to browse through, in addition the manipulative props like jackets, suitcases, toys, and other objects that relate to the exhibit and allow a truly hands-on experience. The guide, additonally, gives suggestions of discussion questions to share with children (e.g. "Share an event from your childhood that you would put in your memoir. Ask the children what events they would like to record from their lives so far") as well as activities to try at home (e.g. design your own chocolate bar).

The second room is devoted to Dahl's story craft, and is called the "Solo Gallery" after Dahl's memoir "Going Solo." This room is even darker than the first, and includes two video screens, and audio booth, a searchable computer with activities relating to all of Dahl's published works, display cases, a drean machine (for creating dreams like the ones in the BFG), crafts and stamp stations, and more manipulatives, bright colors and large photgraphs on the walls. The guide suggests activities to do in the gallery (e.g. "find the BFG's sandal, "use the stampers to create your own illustrated story," etc.), subjects to discuss, and more activities to try at home.

The final room is the story center, which is devoted to the creative process and, more specifically, writing for children. The room includes interviews with famous children's authors (like J.K. Rowling), magnetic (refrigerator) story/poem writing, costumes to dress up in, the costume worn by Johnny Depp in the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film, a stop-frame animation booth, Roald Dahl's desk and desk chair, and other various hands-on objects and activities. With so mich to do, this really seems less like a museum (in the tradtional sense) and more like a fun day out. I think it's wonderful that the curators clearly put a lot of thought into making these exhibits appealing to children. As an overgrown child myself (as I believe many children's librarians are), I thoroughly enjoyed all the activities and eye-catching displays. This museum really hits at being appealing not only to children, but to their parents and adult guardians as well. It is neither insultingly juvenile nor inaccessible to young children. Overall, I would rank the Roald Dahl museum as one of the best multi-aged/ cross-generational museums I have ever visited.


Things I did not know before the trip to the museum:
*Dahl wrote the screenplays for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.

*He didn't start writing books for children until he was quite old, despite his children's works being what he is remembered for.

*Roald Dahl liked chocolate but hated chocolate cake