Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art [www.dollart.com]

Winner of the Jumeau Award for the best doll museum in the world, the site features more than 3,000 dolls of modern times and centuries past. Professional curators discuss the artistry, history, and technology of dolls. Exhibits also feature miniatures and teddy bears. The website offers a number of interesting sections including antique dolls and items for sale from the Museum shop range (prices from hundreds to thousands of dollars).

Located in Seattle, Oregon, USA at 116 108th Ave. NE, Bellevue.
Open: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. Sunday 1pm to 5pm
Admission: adults $7, concession $6, and children age 4 and under are free.
International phone: +1 425 455-1116.

This was a fantastic unexpected find for me when I went touring in the Pacific North West. I saw there was a "doll museum" in Seattle but had no idea that I would find such an extensive and high quality collection housed in such a perfect setting. I would recommend this highly to anyone (provided they have an interest in dolls......).
Note: Sadly I see this musem is now closed as of March 2012.

Puppen & Spielzeugmuseum, Rottweil [www.puppenmuseum.de]

Doll and toy museum at Rottweil. The web reference site is in German - some success using "translate this page" on Google. However you can see that the pictures speak for the museum.

Located at Hauptstraße 49, 78628 Rottweil, Germany
Open: Monday to Friday, 10am to 12:30pm then 2pm to 5:30pm,
Saturday afternoons only, from 2pm to 5pm,
Sundays and holidays 11am to 5pm
Admission: adults 3€, children 2€, and families 7€.
International phone: +49 (0)741 9422177

Another delightful surprise to find such an excellent local doll and toy museum while visiting my friend Babette in Germany. Full of lovely German (and some French) dolls and costumes.

Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green [www.museumofchildhood.org.uk]

Contemporary museum devoted to childhood, so not just exhibitions of dolls. However you can see on the website a description of the layout of the museum and the type of exhibits on offer. Lots of stuff for children to do as well as to see. Museum has a long history, beginning life in South Ken then moving location and opening by the future King Edward 7th in Bethnal Green in 1860. Began to focus on childhood in the 1920's, and today officially recognised as the National Museum of Childhood.

Located to the east part of London at Cambridge Heath Road, (E2 9PA) in the UK
Open: 10am to 5:50pm every day except Friday.
Also closed on 24th, 25th and 26th Dec, and 1st Jan.
Admission: FREE of charge
International phone: +44 (0)20 8980 2415 (24 hour information line)

I have not yet visited this museum (as is the way with things on your own doorstep) but I am looking forward to it for the future.

BBR auctions [www.onlinebbr.com]
and
Elsecar Heritage Centre [www.elsecar-heritage-centre.co.uk/]

BBR is devoted to bottle collecting. Old glass bottles are mainly salvaged from Victorian rubbish dumps, (enthusiasts dig for them hoping to uncover a rarity). As well as glass and pottery items they also recover doll heads, which they sell at the bottle fairs. BBR auctions and fairs take place about 4 times a year at the Elsecar Heritage Centre.*

* How did I discover this? My other half is a collector of eye baths - or eye cups as the Americans call them - and went to these auctions to pursue his hobby (see his website www.eyebaths.com which caters to a small but dedicated clientele). Imagine my joy when, preparing for a tedious weekend of bottles (and worse), I found every other vendor's stall had a few ancient doll heads for sale.

The Heritage Centre is a history and craft centre, set in the attractive conservation village of Elsecar and surrounded by beautiful South Yorkshire countryside. The Centre is on the site of industrial workshops, originally owned by the local Earls Fitzwilliam, which date from the early 1800's; visitors can explore the attractively restored buildings and monuments, wander alongside the Dearne and Dove Canal and follow footpaths including a branch of the Trans-Pennine Trail. Attractions include: steam railway exhibits; hot metal press; the only Newcomen type engine, world wide, to remain in its original location, (a unique monument to the industrial age); craft workshops; tearooms,and antiques centres.

Located in Elsecar in South Yorkshire in the UK.
Open: Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 4.30pm (Last admissions 4pm),
Admission: Adults £1.50 and children £1.
Phone numbers are available for the various sections of the Centre - see the website.

Dolly Weatherwax, (display pictured left when in the Powerhouse antiques centre in Elsecar), specialises in high quality antique bisque dolls, doll's clothes and other related items. See her website dollyweatherwaxantiquedolls.com

Brighton Toy and Model Museum [www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk]

Originally known as the Sussex Toy & Model Museum and was based on several important collections. The museum is an independent, non-profit making organisation. Features include a priceless toy and model train collection with an extensive '0' gauge working layout, as well as '00' model of the Sussex countryside; meccano and other construction toys; puppets and toy theatres; penny arcade games; tin plate toys, cars and buses; exotic toy and model ships; large-scale, radio-controlled aeroplanes, and an extensive range of diecast toys. There are a number of dolls and dolls-house furniture on display

Location in Brighton at 52/55 Trafalgar Street, BN1 4EB in the UK
Open: Tuesday to Friday: 10:00am - 5:00pm, Saturday: 11:00am - 5:00pm,
closed Sundays and Mondays
Admission: Adults £3.50, children and concession £2.00, family (2+2) £9.00
International phone: +44 1273 74 94 94

It was indeed a case of "I used to have one like that" but not in my case applied to the trains or dolls. A very interesting museum; its location set into the arches under the railway station (which may sound odd if you don't know Brighton) is interesting in itself. Weekly trips to shop in Brighton as a small child involved memorably exiting the station underground directly into Trafalgar Street (not sure if possible now) and then on to the London Road. My Mother remembered, as a child (before about 1920), hitching illicit rides on the back of horse-drawn carts to travel up Trafalgar Street (a hill) - and occasionally catching a lash of the driver's whip to remove his unwanted cargo.

Wish Tower Puppet Museum [www.puppets.co.uk]

A "cultural time capsule" (sic) from mankind's earliest experiments with shadow puppets through to the latest animatronics and everything in between including: Wayang shadow figures from Asia, Turkish Karagoz shadow puppets, string marionettes, rod puppets, Japanese Bunraku figures, glove puppets, Punch and Judy, and characters like Muffin the Mule, Pelham Puppets, Penny Plain & Twopence Coloured, and Thunderbirds.

Location at King Edwards Parade in Eastbourne UK
Open: 11am to 5pm weekends only from Easter to mid-July; and end of August to mid-October
and daily from mid-July to the end of August
Admission: Adults £1.80, children £1.25, family (2+2) £5.00
International phone: +44 (0)1323 417776

Another museum that I have not yet visited but on my list; housed in a 19th century Martello Tower (originally built as a defence against the feared Napoleonic invasion) on Eastbourne's seafront.

On a sad note Pollocks Toy Museum (and its location) appears to be in some state of flux, which is not entirely clear to me. There seem to be some disputes over the collection as well as the running of the museum. It seems likely that what was the collection will now be split. You can read about it at www.pollocksweb.co.uk .

The Warwick Doll Museum (1920's photo on the left) closed on 31 August 2004, but part of the collection previously displayed there is redisplayed at St John's House Museum in Warwick.