Caplan Collection
Encyclopedia
The Caplan Collection of folk art and childhood artifacts is held by The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
; in 1984 it was donated by Frank
and Theresa Caplan
, owners of the Creative Playthings
toy company. The museum began accessioning the collection in January 1985. The collection consists of nearly 32,000 objects, from toys to dolls to games to musical instruments to masks to clothing to folk art from over 120 different countries. The museum created a specific exhibit for the collection, entitled "Passport to the World," which opened in 1986. Initially the Caplans had intended for the collection to be the basis of a new Museum of Fantasy and Play, but this never materialized and they donated their collection to the Children's Museum instead. The Caplans spent about US$1 million acquiring the objects from around 1965 to 1985; some of the countries strongly represented are Japan
, Mexico
, Russia
, Germany
, Indonesia
, and India
.
to Indianapolis
. All the objects were temporarily housed in space provided by Eli Lilly & Co. where they were fumigated to prevent any insects from entering the museum storage area. Subsequent transport of the collection from the warehouse to the museum and unpacking all the 50,000 pieces took museum staff members 10 months to complete. Paul Richard, the Children's Museum's director of programs in 1985, said that the institution was "thrilled" to acquire the collection "with our philosophy of inspiring creativity in children, which is exactly what the Caplans have strived for with their various endeavors".
An opening reception was held on December 6, 1986. Present that evening were Frank and Theresa Caplan, members of their family, local dignitaries, diplomats from the United Nations and several of the countries represented in the collection along with more than 500 invited guests and international entertainers. Members of Pedro Linares' family from Mexico demonstrated the making of alebrijes, their unique, fantasy, papier mache creatures while groups of international musicians and dancers performed throughout the museum.
from Indonesia and India, carved wood puppets from Mali and Burma, a gourd helicopter from Mexico, a gamelan orchestra from Indonesia, a beaded stool from Cameroon, a castanet
rattle from Portugal
, cornhusk figures from Czechoslovakia
, toys made by children from Zaire, Tanzania and Brazil, weavings from Egypt, carved figures from Poland
, and ceremonial masks from Sri Lanka
, Japan, Guatemala
, Nepal
and Burkina Faso
.
people, British Columbia
and Day of the Dead
figures from Mexico
. Unique objects include figural coffins made by Kane Kwei and Paa Joe of the Ga people
of Teshi-Accra, Ghana.
of Mexico, soft sculpture by Andjelka Filipovic of Yugoslavia, carved wood figures by Tadeusz Adamski of Poland, a doll by Sasha Morganthaler of Switzerland, clay figures by Teodora Blanco of Mexico, Native American storyteller figures by Dorothy Trujillo of the Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico
, well as thousands of anonymous craftspersons whose works were purchased by the Caplans in markets and bazaars of the countries they visited.
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's largest children's museum. It is located in the United Northwest Area neighborhood on Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. It is with five floors of exhibit halls...
; in 1984 it was donated by Frank
Frank Caplan
Frank Caplan was a youth worker, educator, folk toy collector, and pioneer in developing and manufacturing educational toys for children...
and Theresa Caplan
Theresa Caplan
Theresa Caplan was an American twentieth-century scholar of early childhood development and a collector of worldwide toys. Working with her husband Frank, she wrote multiple acclaimed books and built a massive collection of toys that is now part of a significant museum.Born on 6 June 1913, Caplan...
, owners of the Creative Playthings
Creative Playthings
Creative Playthings was an educational toy store and catalogue that was established by Frank and Theresa Caplan in 1945. The goal of Creative Playthings was to provide simple and beautifully designed toys to promote a child’s creativity and imagination....
toy company. The museum began accessioning the collection in January 1985. The collection consists of nearly 32,000 objects, from toys to dolls to games to musical instruments to masks to clothing to folk art from over 120 different countries. The museum created a specific exhibit for the collection, entitled "Passport to the World," which opened in 1986. Initially the Caplans had intended for the collection to be the basis of a new Museum of Fantasy and Play, but this never materialized and they donated their collection to the Children's Museum instead. The Caplans spent about US$1 million acquiring the objects from around 1965 to 1985; some of the countries strongly represented are Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Acquisition
Theresa Caplan had organized the entire collection, using 20,000 meticulously documented notecards in 28 shoe boxes. All of the cards were organized by country and category. The collection was moved in three semi trucks containing 1500 boxes from a warehouse and the Caplan's home in Princeton, New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
to Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
. All the objects were temporarily housed in space provided by Eli Lilly & Co. where they were fumigated to prevent any insects from entering the museum storage area. Subsequent transport of the collection from the warehouse to the museum and unpacking all the 50,000 pieces took museum staff members 10 months to complete. Paul Richard, the Children's Museum's director of programs in 1985, said that the institution was "thrilled" to acquire the collection "with our philosophy of inspiring creativity in children, which is exactly what the Caplans have strived for with their various endeavors".
Passport to the World exhibit
The Caplan Collection was extensively used within the exhibit Passport to the World which opened in 1986. The theme of the exhibit was: "All people celebrate, communicate, imagine and create, but in different ways." The exhibit was divided into four areas that displayed artifacts showing how the four parts of the theme were depicted in cultures around the world.An opening reception was held on December 6, 1986. Present that evening were Frank and Theresa Caplan, members of their family, local dignitaries, diplomats from the United Nations and several of the countries represented in the collection along with more than 500 invited guests and international entertainers. Members of Pedro Linares' family from Mexico demonstrated the making of alebrijes, their unique, fantasy, papier mache creatures while groups of international musicians and dancers performed throughout the museum.
Folk art and toys
Highlights of the collection include shadow puppetsShadow puppets
Shadow Puppets can refer to:* A synonym for shadow play* Shadow Puppets, the 2002 novel by Orson Scott Card* Shadow Puppets , 2007 horror film...
from Indonesia and India, carved wood puppets from Mali and Burma, a gourd helicopter from Mexico, a gamelan orchestra from Indonesia, a beaded stool from Cameroon, a castanet
Castanet
Castanets are a percussion instrument , used in Moorish, Ottoman, ancient Roman, Italian, Spanish, Sephardic Music, and Portuguese music. The instrument consists of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string. They are held in the hand and used to produce clicks for rhythmic accents or...
rattle from Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, cornhusk figures from Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, toys made by children from Zaire, Tanzania and Brazil, weavings from Egypt, carved figures from Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and ceremonial masks from Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Japan, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
and Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
.
Expanding the collection
Since the original donation by the Caplans, the museum has continued to collect objects that enhance and strengthen the collection. Of these acquisitions, highlights include a raven transformation mask of the KwakiutlKwakiutl
The term Kwakiutl, historically applied to the entire Kwakwaka'wakw ethno-linguistic group of originally 28 tribes, comes from one of the Kwakwaka'wakw tribes, the Kwagu'ł or Kwagyeulth, at Fort Rupert, with whom Franz Boas did most of his anthropological work and whose Indian Act Band government...
people, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
and Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality...
figures from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Unique objects include figural coffins made by Kane Kwei and Paa Joe of the Ga people
Ga people
The Ga-Adangbe are an ethnic group in the West African nation of Ghana. It is part of the Dangme ethnic group. The Ga people are grouped as part of theGa–Dangme ethnolinguistic group. They speak Kwa languages...
of Teshi-Accra, Ghana.
Folk artists
Works by many internationally renowned artists are contained in the collection: paper machéalebrijes by the Linares familyPedro Linares
Pedro Linares Lopez was a Mexican artist born in Mexico City and was the creator of the paper maché figurines named alebrijes....
of Mexico, soft sculpture by Andjelka Filipovic of Yugoslavia, carved wood figures by Tadeusz Adamski of Poland, a doll by Sasha Morganthaler of Switzerland, clay figures by Teodora Blanco of Mexico, Native American storyteller figures by Dorothy Trujillo of the Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, well as thousands of anonymous craftspersons whose works were purchased by the Caplans in markets and bazaars of the countries they visited.