| Abstract: | Abstract Not a month goes by at the Brooklyn Children's Museum without a call or visit from a group of enthusiastic educators and community leaders on a mission to start their own children's museum or gallery. Recent guests have arrived from as far away as Israel, Ecuador, Japan, and Australia, and as nearby as the Bronx. In the United States, children's museums represent one of the youngest and fastest growing cultural sectors. Our field was founded in 1899 with the opening of the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Anna Billings Gallup, an influential curator and director at the museum from 1902 to 1937, spoke widely about the value of bringing the child into the forefront of museum activities. In the United States, the field grew slowly but steadily to four children's museums in 1925 and to approximately 38 by 1975. In the last three decades, sparked by the groundbreaking work of Michael Spock at the Boston Children's Museum, the field has been energized by an extraordinary boom in new and expanding children's museums. Today there are approximately 350 worldwide. |
