Our Collection

Permanent Collection Highlights

Miniature Decorative Arts Department

The Milne Collection
The Milne Collection Period Rooms was made possible by a gift from Bob Milne in 2004. Mr. Milne was attracted to the small scale miniatures and American furniture, which he amassed over three quarters of a century and donated his collection to the Museum.

Related to A.A. Milne, but never met him.

When people hear Bob Milne’s surname, an occasional response is, “Oh, like ‘Winnie the Pooh.’ He is indeed related to A.A. Milne, Winnie’s creator. His father was a cousin of A.A. Milne, but never met him. Yet there are other connections, as well. Bob’s middle name is Sheperd” [spelled with just one letter different from the Winnie book’s illustrator, Ernest Shepard} and, in a deliberate Pooh reference, he was called Robin (as in Christopher Robin) to distinguish him from Robert, his father.

The Period Rooms
The miniatures are in a scale of one inch to one foot. The rooms depict the architecture and interior design of their periods, and contain reproductions representing 17th, 18th & 19th and 21st century furniture, books, silver, porcelain and pottery, glassware and paintings.

Milne, always interested in the theatre, had been greatly impressed by the meticulously crafted, world-famous dollhouse rooms in scale created by Mrs. James Ward Thorne. The Thorne miniatures, displayed in tiny, box-shaped rooms, each like a little stage, helped inspire Bob with his own collection.

His goal in collecting was to develop miniatures - “everything that an American household would have” - rooms from different periods of American history, beginning with the Pilgrims in the 1620s up to the present. Upon receiving the donation, The Doll and Toy Museum of NYC went to work on creating period rooms to house his miniatures.

The Museum’s theme for it’sfirst project was called New York City Imagined; Leaders Past and Present to honor our forefathers and current leaders for their leadership, struggles and sacrifices, which have made our lives in the city possible today. These tiny replicas are of rooms used by four NYC Mayors dating back to the 17th century, from Thomas Willet, 1665-66, to the current officeholder, Michael Bloomberg. In the 21st Century room there are two hand-sculpted dolls of Mayor Bloomberg and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. There are over 200 tiny treasures on display at the Brooklyn Heights Public Library.

The Doll and Toy Museum of NYC gladly accepted his collection and immediately contacted the Cooper - Hewitt National Design Museum for assistance in creating the Period Rooms and archiving the Doll and Toy Museum’s miniature Decorative Arts Department. The department works closely with interns from Cooper-Hewitt/Parsons School of Design Masters Program.

Dollhouse Department

Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus’s Workshop and Home This house was generously donated to The Doll and Toy Museum of NYC in October 2001, by Pam Paul, Director of the Abingdon Theatre Company. (link to Abingdon Theatre Company) The donation was made in honor of her mother Robilee Brummitt DeGroot.

Ms. DeGroot had lived in Dallas, Texas and was avid collector and miniaturist. She often designed and built the dollhouses herself. She was also a docent at the Dallas Museum, and traveled with other miniature lovers to shows, exhibitions and to see dollhouse collections around the county. Her own dollhouses were shown at exhibitions around Dallas including the Dallas Arboretum.

After Pam’s mother’s death, her four dollhouses were donated along with the furnishings and accessories to the museum. Two of the other houses are currently on display at the South Street Seaport Museum in 2005, in New York City and a third, a grand Victorian mansion is unfinished.

Ms. DeGroot’s had a very special passion for holiday decorations including Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Valentines Day. This house was originally designed to be Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus’s workshop and home.

The Doll and Toy Museum has made every attempt to refurnish the house as Ms. DeGroot would have set it up herself for friends, family and the general public to enjoy. We wish to thank Barbara Vivian for her long hours of work locating all of the wonderful holiday trimmings and furnishings to bring this dollhouse back to life! The dollhouse was on display at the Rockland County Historical Society, Oct -December 2005.