Lady of the House

Imagination is a wonderful attribute, especially in a child. For centuries dollhouses have been used not only to stimulate creativity in the minds of children. With a dollhouse, children become the "ruler of their own domain," as they develop stories about people and situations around people, in their own lives.

But, dollhouses also give us a glimpse into the historic culture of our nation. The Gunn Memorial Library and Museum, in Washington Connecticut, is hosting an exhibit of dollhouses from private collections that spans three hundred years. There are room vignettes built to a miniature aficionado's traditional scale of 1 inch to 1 foot, but then it's easy to find the houses where a child's imagination trumped scale in order to tell a story. There are miniature utensils, appliances, dishes, bathroom fixtures, furniture, carpets, lights, books, wallpaper, food, in fact everything you could imagine in a house but built to 1/12 scale.

Why me? Is it because I have a "Boy named Sue" complex? Not really. You see, in my former life back in Cleveland, Ohio, I was actually president of the Cleveland Miniaturia Society, the second oldest miniaturist organization in the country. I was fascinated with the detail of so many skilled artisans as they created intricate scale replicas of everything imaginable, often from everything imaginable. There were even some who created scale dollhouses for their dollhouses, yes, 1/144 scale.

I still have a room vignette that I spent hundreds of hours creating. Someday, I will clean it up and pass it along to one of my grands so they will have an idea of what life was like back in the roaring 70s. Who knows, maybe I will even put a "Ken" doll in the rocking chair for someone to make up stories about me - - or not.

The "It's a Small, Small World: Dollhouses and Miniatures," exhibit will be at the Gunn Memorial Library and Museum through February 17, 2013. There is no admission fee, and yes, you can take pictures.