Harry Potter!

Several versions of this display comprised of items from my Harry Potter collection have been displayed at the Main Library in Orlando and at the branches throughout the system since July 2002, with several encores.

The collection includes cookie jars; scenes from the book, wrist watches, the Hogwart's Express electric locomotive, the Weasley's flying car, various Christmas ornaments, playing cards, magic set, Wedgewood china, sorting hat, pins, action figures (including Tom Riddle!), books, audio cassette books, movie music CDs, and many more items of interest.

The display cases at Main are much wider (as you can see in the photos below) and larger items were included in displays at the Main Library in Orlando, including a Nimbus 2000 broom with sound effects, Professor McGonnagal's hat, and an Owl handle umbrella.

SPACE:
The Final Frontier!

This exhibit was first displayed in April 2005 near the Children's Department at the Main library in Orlando. It traveled to several branches throughout 2005 and 2006. It featured a collection of autographs and photos of astronauts I met in 1997 at Epcot and KSC, and other Shuttle and NASA memorabelia including the mission pins from most of the 38 missions I saw in person on the base at KSC.
In addition, you can see Cabbage Patch Astronaut dolls (one boy and one girl) in EVA suits which came out shortly after the Challenger accident and belong to Chris and Ashley. I also included some of my favorite Star Trek memorabelia.

This display was first at the Main Library in Orlando in October 2005.
It featured 40-45 year old Marklin trains, Hummel figurines, Steiff, German stamps and coins, postcards from 1977 Germany's Soccer World Championship, nutcrackers, stein, porcelain, Kinder Hut and gifts that people have sent me or my children from Germany including pewter cup from Frankfurt, beeswax candle from the Luneberger heide, porcelain plates from Wuppertal, a KPM porcelain plate from Berlin, a scarf from Hamburg, and nutcrackers from the Black Forest.
It included photos of Oliver's ancestors, Omi Peters holding infant Klaus, Oma Schneider, Oliver at age 3. There were photos of the Peters when they were first married and an article on the Seafaring men in the Peters family from Stolpmunde, along with several books penned by Oliver's uncle Adolf Schneider of Wiesbaden.
A slightly reduced version of the display traveled to several branches during 2006.

L. FRANK BAUM - ROYAL HISTORIAN OF OZ!

In 2005, a Librarian in the Children's Department at the Main Library, remembering that I had made a Wicked Witch of the North costume and liked to dress up (in full green makeup) at Halloween, asked if I might have items to do a display on the Wizard of Oz. My son was an avid Oz reader at the age of nine and wrote his own Oz book: The Tin Woods Lady of Oz in 4th Grade at Heathrow Elementary.

He and I were also members of the International Wizard of Oz Club and our entire family had the honor and privilege of meeting Angelica Shirley Carpenter and Jean Shirley, the authors of the biography: L. Frank Baum - Royal Historian of Oz.

This display has traveled throughout the system in 2006. It will be at Southeast Branch in March and April; Winter Garden in May and June, and Herndon Branch July and August 2007.Click on the images to the left for a better look.

These three photos show a pared down display from the one which began it's run at the Main Library in Orlando and had a repeat performance for L. Frank Baum's 150th Birthday in May 2006.

The display includes collectible dolls from the 50 year anniversary of the release of the MGM movie; all 14 Oz books, the fantastic Sabuda Oz pop up book; the biography: L. Frank Baum - Royal Historian of Oz written by Mrs. Shirley and Mrs. Carpenter; two movie stills; two collector plates; the Department 56 Emerald City collectible, Oz photo frame (Are you a good witch or a bad witch with a photo of Ashley in front of the "Wicked" theater in NYC); a photo of Mrs. Carpenter and Mrs. Shirley with Christopher and Ashley in front of their home in West Palm Beach, a large framed photo of L. Frank Baum, and several editions of the Baum Bugle and International Wizard of Oz Club flyers and Christmas greetings.

The display at the Main Library also included my Wicked Witch hat and broom, Christopher's book, and a painting of the Tin Man and Scarecrow on the Yellow Brick Road with the Emerald City in the distance.