Duluth Children's Museum records

The Duluth Children’s Museum, the fifth oldest children’s museum in the nation is a collections based organization. It was founded by Mabel Mackinney Wing in November, 1930 as a learning resource and housed in an unused classroom offered by the Board of Education, at the Salter School. Furnished with “paper-covered packing boxes and two old school tables”, Mabel Wing along with Indianola Willcutts, head of the Duluth State Teachers College art department, opened the “museum” with Wing’s objects of art and souvenirs of travel, her grandfather’s Mexican curios, nature displays from other schools, and Willcutts’ South American collection. The collection supported the curriculum of the Duluth schools and Mabel Wing was added to the Board of Education payroll in 1931 at $50 per month. Display cases from an old candy store replaced apple crates. A board of directors was formed in 1934 to promote the museum.

In 1936, Mrs. A. M. Chisholm presented her home, 1832 East Second Street in Duluth, to the Board of Education for a museum, and Wing became the curator of the A. M. Chisholm Museum. It was open year-round and two Sundays each month. Initial collections came from George S. Barnum (Oriental collection), Mrs. A. M. Miller (art), Mr. and Mrs. John A. Stephenson (Egyptian and Near East), Ward Ames (natural history), and Bertha Richards (early American furniture). Two wings were added to the house in 1960 with funds from the 1956 Duluth Centennial. Wing retired from the museum in 1965 due to ill health.