Christmas comes, we are reliably informed, but once a year. And with it comes the annual holiday show of dollhouses, miniatures, and model trains at Curtiss Museum. I was there a week or so back, so now I’ve seen twenty shows in a row.
It all started back in the “old museum,” the former Hammondsport Academy on Lake and Main Streets. Someone decided that they should do something a little different and reach out to another audience. Someone came up with the thought of a dollhouse show, and some space was made, and a new holiday tradition was born.
In another building and another century, the show is bigger than it was both in numbers and in concept. Model trains have long been part of Christmas, and several very nice layouts are scattered through the exhibit space. One of them pretty much fills the cupola from Glenn Curtiss’s house.
A long-time favorite is a huge sawmill layout, taking pride of place in the lobby. Miniatures fit in with dollhouses and model trains, but they take a different tack. Miniaturists strive to recreate a scene… perhaps an imaginary one… and draw you into their world. Another miniature in the show is a working carousel. “Best of Show,” in my personal opinion, is Mickie Vollmer’s deliriously busy barnyard scene. (Joyce likes Mickie’s library best.) We also find miniature soldiers on exhibit.
The dollhouses run the gamut from light “art” pieces, designed for adults to admire, to massive carpenter-built playthings that have cheerfully survived the enthusiasms of generations of children. Some are commercial products, each rivetingly familiar to one generation of girls or another. There’s even a nineteenth-century Bliss house, one of the first mass-produced dollhouses.
Christmas to me is a blend of the comfortingly familiar on one hand, and the excitingly new on the other. Jim Sladish’s model train layout is an old friend, and so is a barn built by Dick Hamilton. Dick and Myrtle both passed away since last year’s show.
Something new calls out for attention right by the admissions desk. It’s a roadside diner, with cars in the parking lot, hot dogs on the grill, and customers at the counter.
I saw former Hammondsport art teacher Bob Magee at the show, and he showed me a special offering of his own. When Randy Kuhl was in Congress he asked Bob to create a large ornament for a White House Christmas tree representing all 435 House districts. Bob’s globe shows Glenn Curtiss, grapes, and glassblowers. He wrote the George W. Bush Presidential Library, which quickly unearthed it and lent it for the exhibit.
This special exhibit segues nicely into some of the museum’s permanent exhibits. A one-horse open sleigh is festively decorated, and the miniatures slide into a large selection of antique toys and dolls – not to mention that there are plenty of model airplanes, of course.
As far as I’m concerned, the miniatures show is an integral part of the holidays. Take a look, and see if you think so too.