September 8, 2011 by Matt Myers

This week I'd like to talk about my trip to the Walt Disney Archives.

The archives have items from way back in 1901 and while on the tour we saw the old animation building from the Walt Disney Studios that the animators used. The drawings were first created and traveled underground to the animation building starting back at the studio when it was there in 1940. The archives didn't officially form until 1970. Archives Founder and Chief Archivist and Disney Legend Dave Smith was there. The part of the archives I saw was pretty much one big building on the first floor and it has a lot of cool stuff in the room that we were in. I wish I could move into the Archives and sleep there every night. That would be very cool!

Once you enter the Archives' special room, there is a display case with Walt Disney history. This is the room where you can find the Carolwood Pacific Railroad which is the train that used to be in Walt Disney's backyard. His birth certificate is in the case with his baby picture and a couple of Oscars that were personally won by Walt as well!

Some of the stuff there was Walt's original drawings from when he was a teenager. That was really cool! In another display case there were a lot of Mickey Mouse toys and collectibles.

There was something here that you wouldn't see every day: It's the original first ticket every bought for Disneyland! Do you know who bought it? Dave then showed us some of the tickets from the original ticket books for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World!

Wait a minute, did I say that there we saw Walt Disney Oscars? Yes, and I got to hold one of Disney's original Oscars that he won!!!

The things here made me wonder what I may read in other Days of the Weeks articles. Who knows? Donald Duck food products might be found on Sunday Brunch or Who's Who? Wednesday may cover an archived costume. Fun Find Friday might cover more of the tour and Hidden Mickey Monday might talk about a Hidden Mickey in the lot. I'm going to keep reading to hope that they are there!

Have a great week everyone!