Toyland, Toyland
Around the same time that the general director incorrectly assessed the Winona Masonic scenery collection, a Freemason from Kansas contacted the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center through their website. He was a doctoral student at UMKC and wanted to reach out for advice concerning a York Rite scenery collection. All incoming email inquiries for the Heritage Center went into the general director’s inbox.
The gentleman from Kansas had read about the relocation of the Fort Scott scenery collection in a local newspaper and believed that someone at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center might be able to provide some guidance or be interested in a potential acquisition. One day while I was chatting with the new MMHC events manager, she asked if the general director had ever forwarded on the email concerning the possible scenery donation. I responded that the he had not. This occurrence reminded me of the general director not including me in the conversation about the Winona scenery. Again, I asked myself “why?”
I thought back to the unloading of the Fort Scott scenery from the trucks. On the afternoon of November 23, 2015, the general director came over to me as I was identifying a label on a batten bundle. He smiled and said “We aren’t buying any more toys for you!” and then walked away. This was said to me in front of the entire Ready Labor crew, the Bella Tex representatives, and my husband. At the time I was shocked that his statement would be made in front of my colleagues and a crew of unfamiliar workers. After having worked so hard to remove and transport the Fort Scott collection over the course of three weeks, this acquisition was now being referred to as my toys. He was clearly oblivious to the fact that we had just secured an internationally significant art collection in need of preservation.
I propose that this was the beginning of the end for the Fort Scott scenery collection. It needed more than a mere advocate ensuring proper handling and treatment. It needed a bodyguard – someone to protect it from the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center’s general director who saw it as a theatrical “toy.”
As I left the storage facility that day, all I could think about is someone referring to this collection as toys. Victor Herbert’s lyrics from “Babes in Toyland” kept running through my head.
“Toyland, toyland,
Little girl and boy land,
While you dwell within it,
You are ever happy then.”
I thought of the year 1903 when this show premiered at the Majestic Theater in New York. Nearby at the Broadway Theatre, Moses’ scenic art was also on display for the new production of “The Medal and the Maid.”
To be continued…
