Boynton
Beach,
Florida (Palm Beach County, Florida):
A history exhibit entitled
Barbie®:
The Golden Anniversary
will be on display thru April 1,
2010. The location for the display
of the vintage Barbie® Dolls will be at
the temporary home for the Museum of
Lifestyle & Fashion History at the
Boynton Beach Mall at 801 N. Congress Avenue, Boynton Beach,
Florida.
Hundreds of vintage Barbie® Dolls,
friends, family members and accessories
will be showcased in this is
anthropological and history multi-media
exhibit. The exhibit is full of tidbits
of historical information. Prepare to
spend time to enjoy seeing how these
tidbits of information show how
lifestyle, fashion and history are so
much interrelated.
Especially for the
Holiday season, a Barbie®
Christmas tree was decorated and is
displayed at the Museum of Lifestyle &
Fashion History as a part of a history
exhibit titled Barbie®: The Golden
Anniversary.
More than 50 Barbie® ornaments on loan
from Julie Hartnett of Boca Raton have been hung on a 6.5 feet
Christmas tree. The faux
Christmas tree was donated by
Wal-Mart of Boynton Beach.
Through a partnership with Macy’s of
Boynton Beach the Christmas tree
decorating was designed and coordinated
by Michael Steele who is the Visual
Manager for Macy’s.
In
addition to the 6.5 feet Christmas tree,
Barbie® collector Natalie Nelson has
loaned her table top Barbie® pink
Christmas tree decorated with her
collection of Barbie® ornaments that are
displayed also in the exhibit.
In
conjunction with the Barbie ornament
adorned Christmas trees various Holiday
Barbie® Dolls are now on display too.
The Barbie® Christmas tree display at
the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion
History is a part of the Barbie® history
exhibit and the Barbie Christmas tree is
on display now through
Wednesday, January 6, 2010.
March 2009
marked the 50th birthday of
the world famous
Barbie®
Doll. For Barbie® exhibit items for the
Barbie®: The Golden Anniversary,
the general public was invited to
participate in this anthropological and
history exhibit organized by the Museum
of Lifestyle & Fashion History about the
landmark doll by loaning their Barbie®
Doll items.
The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion
History has also developed a curriculum
infusion partnership with the
Miami International University of Art & Design in Miami. Students at the
college designed Barbie shoes of the
future and also created sketch designs
of clothes for Barbie in the future.
These shoes and sketches are on display
in the exhibit.
Some of the sponsors of Barbie®: The
Golden Anniversary include the
Boynton Beach Mall, the Patricia Ann
Ravo Fund, the Boris & Edith Rueger
Fund, US AC Self Storage, Fedex
Office-Delray Beach; Sears-Boynton
Beach; Home Depot-Boynton Beach, Wolf
Gordon and Master Coating Technologies.
The Barbie® mural and interior décor for
the exhibition was designed by Carrie
LaPorte Bollelle of Carrie Leigh Designs
and AES Interiors.
The Barbie mural was painted by Jodi Lee
of
Lake Worth, FL.
Special thank you to Boynton
Beach Vice Mayor Woodrow Hay
for his contribution towards the
renovations of the Museum’s donated
8,000 square feet facility at the
Boynton Beach Mall. The Museum will be
at this location for at least 3 years.
It was ten
years ago that the Barbie® Doll served
as the inspiration for the non-profit
Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History (MLFH)
when the Museum’s Executive Director,
Lori J. Durante, conceived, developed,
organized and curated the
anthropological exhibition about the
Barbie® Doll in year 1999 in celebration
of the dolls 40th anniversary
and
Woman’s
History Month.
The 1999 exhibit was displayed in
Downtown Delray Beach was entitled 40
years of the Barbie® Doll: In
celebration of Women’s History Month.
That exhibit had a record breaking
attendance of more than 20,000 visitors
from around the world and it became one
of the most memorable exhibitions in all
of Palm Beach County,
Florida and still holds the record for the
highest attended museum exhibit ever in
the City of Delray Beach.
Barbie
Millicent Roberts was introduced to the
market in year 1959 and was the toy
creation of Ruth Handler who was the
co-founder and co-owner of
Mattel.
Through the years, the Barbie® Doll has
represented various careers including
being in the
Navy
and
Army and being
Presidential Candidate Barbie®
of the
United States of America.
The
following are some of the other
participants in the Barbie®
Doll exhibit who have loaned and
provided vintage dolls and items for
display:
Barbara Beaudry of Miami, FL
Ellen Bohde of Boca Raton, FL
Rosemary Cove of Lantana, FL
Vanessa Carosella of Boca Raton, FL
Janet DeVries of Boynton Beach, FL
Florence
Fuller Child Development of
Boca Raton, FL
Nadine Hart of Delray Beach, FL
Julie Hartnett of Boca Raton, FL
Doris Hingston of Boca Raton, FL
Allison Kapner of Lake Worth, FL
Natalie Nelson of Boynton Beach, FL
Milla-Antoinette Ravo of Boca Raton, FL
Gale Smith of
Boynton Beach,
FL
Kathy Susko of Boca Raton, FL
The Museum hours are Tuesday thru
Saturday, 10am until 6pm and Sunday 1pm
until 6pm. The admission fees are $5
per person for adults/senior
citizens/children age 12 and over; $1
per person for children ages 11-2; and
free for children under age 2. For more
information, call 561-243-2662 or
e-mail:
BarbieExhibit@MLFHMUSEUM.org. The
Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History is
located at the Boynton Beach Mall at 801
N. Congress Avenue, Boynton Beach,
FL.
Since 1999,
the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion
History has hosted more than seventeen
exhibitions including traveling
exhibitions from the
Smithsonian Institution of
Washington,
D.C.
The exhibit topics have included the
history of lunch boxes, magazine covers
as well as displays about hats, handbags
and gloves. In year 2004, the MLFH was
designated as the Best New Museum
by the
Broward-Times Newspaper.
From 2003-2005, the Museum was located
in a rent-free 8,000 square feet
facility in the former Pineapple Grove
Shops Plaza located in the 300 Block of
Pineapple Grove Way in the Main Street
District of Downtown Delray Beach,
Florida. That space in the plaza was
generously donated by the owners, A.M.
Davis Mercantile. The Museum had to
move from that location because the
plaza was bought by a new owner who
demolished it in 2005 along with all
buildings in that entire City block for
redevelopment which has not happened
yet.
Although MLFH has been without a
facility for a few years, MLFH has
continued to offer and present various
programs such as the regular monthly
Narrated Bus Tours of Historic Delray
Beach;
the
Children’s Mathematics Narrated Bus Tour
of Historic Delray Beach;
the annual
Children & Parents Day Winter Wonderland;
and the annual
Swedish Enchantment event.
For the bus tours, the accolades have
included
Best Bets
in Palm Beach County in 2006 & 2005 by the Gold Coast
Edition of Guest Informant Magazine; and
in 2006, the Museum's Narrated Bus Tours
of Historic Delray Beach were selected
as Unique Travel Gem by
AAA Travel Home & Away Magazine of
Mid-America. In May 2008 and June 2006,
the Museum's Narrated Bus Tours of
Historic Delray Beach were selected as
Best Tour of the Town
by The Palm Beacher & Gold Coast
Magazines.
In addition
to year 2009 being the 50th
birthday of the Barbie® Doll and the 10th
anniversary of Museum of Lifestyle &
Fashion History, year 2009 also marks
the
100th
anniversary of Palm Beach County, Florida.
Therefore, some of the Museum’s
confirmed events and programs for year
2009 will include recognition of the 100th
birthday of Palm Beach County, Florida.
The Barbie®
Call to the public was for any Barbie®
Dolls from years 1959 to present along
with Barbie® clothes, pets, cars, houses
and Barbie friends such as Ken, Skipper
and Midge. This call was also for
Barbie® Dolls representing different
cultures, different countries and much
more. If a person would like for their
Barbie® Dolls items to be considered for
temporary display, they need to mail or
e-mail their name, street mailing
address, phone number and e-mail address
to the
Museum of
Lifestyle & Fashion History at P.O. Box
6127, Delray Beach, Florida 33482 or
e-mail BarbieExhibit@MLFHMUSEUM.org.
People should also include a brief
description about the items that they
wish to loan, how long they have owned
their Barbie® items, and when and how
they acquired the Barbie® items.
The
following is a brief list of some of the
vintage dolls and accessories that are
confirmed to be displayed in the
exhibit:
Original 1959 Barbie® Doll (first Barbie
Doll)
Bubble Hairdo 1964 Barbie® Doll
1970s Malibu Barbie® Dolls and
accessories
NASCAR Barbie®
Space Camp Barbie®
Miss
America
Barbie®
Audrey Hepburn Barbie®
Peruvian Barbie®
Australian Barbie®
Morocco
Barbie®
Peruvian Barbie®
Arctic Barbie®
Native American Barbie®
Sign-language Barbie®
1970 Midge Doll
1970s Skipper Doll
1960s Ken Dolls
History
of the Barbie® Doll:
The Barbie®
doll was invented in 1959 by Ruth
Handler (co-founder of Mattel), whose
own daughter was called Barbara. Barbie®
was introduced to the world at the
American Toy Fair in
New York City.
The doll was intended to be a teenage
fashion doll. There has been some
controversy over Barbie®'s figure when
it realized that if Barbie® was a real
person her measurements would be an
impossible 36-18-38. The Ken doll was
named after Ruth's son. Barbie® first
had bendable legs in 1965.
More
facts about the Barbie® Doll:
-
Barbie’s real name is Barbie
Millicent Roberts
-
Barbie is from Willows, Wisconsin. She attended
Willows
High School
-
Ruth
Handler, co-founder of Mattel,
brought her vision of a
three-dimensional doll to life with
the introduction of Barbie in 1959
-
Barbie® first appeared in the
now-famous black-and-white striped
swimsuit and signature ponytail
-
Barbie® has four sisters: Skipper
(1964), Stacie (1992), Kelly (1995)
and Krissy (1995)
-
Barbie®’s first pet was a horse
named Dancer
-
The
first Barbie® doll sold for $3.00
(1959)
-
Barbie®’s signature color is Barbie
pink: PMS 219
-
Barbie®’s first boyfriend, Ken,
debuted two years after Barbie in
1961
-
Ken
was named after the son of Mattel
founders Ruth and Elliot Handler
-
Ken
and Barbie® broke up on Valentine’s
Day in 2004 after being together
more than 43 years
-
The
best-selling Barbie® doll ever was
1992 Totally Hair Barbie®, with hair
from the top of her head to her toes
-
Barbie® has been outfitted by more
than 70 famous couturiers
-
Barbie® has had more than 108
inspirational careers
Barbie®
is a registered trademark of the Mattel
Corporation. Barbie®: The Golden
Anniversary exhibit is being developed,
organized and presented by the Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History. It is not a
Mattel program