The Walt Disney Family Museum

The fascinating and inspiring story of Walt Disney came to life in October 2009, when The Walt Disney Family Museum opened in San Francisco.

The 77,000 square-foot Walt Disney Family Museum is located in three buildings on the site of a former barrack in San Francisco's Presidio, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The first building houses the permanent collection, a 114-seat screening facility, learning center, museum store and cafe. The second building houses the Family Museum and Foundation offices, and, in 2012, will begin housing temporary exhibitions. The museum's third building, a former storage facility, is used for equipment storage. The permanent collection is arranged into 10 distinct galleries that chronicle Walt Disney's life and career.

Owned and operated by Walt Disney Family Foundation, the stated mission of the museum is to present "the life and achievements of the man who raised animation to an art, transformed the film industry, tirelessly pursued innovation, and created a global and distinctively American legacy."

"The name ‘Disney' calls to mind the vast company that bears my father's name, rather than my father himself," said Diane Disney Miller, daughter of Walt Disney and a director of the foundation that is funding the $110 million museum. "My father was a man of endless curiosity who loved to tinker and explore and entertain people. We look forward to sharing an honest and affectionate portrait of this amazing man."

The Walt Disney Family Museum contains hundreds of audio clips of Disney and his family and coworkers telling the stories of his creations, as well as over 1,600 objects and works of art, 200 monitors, and interactive exhibits that will invite visitors to learn about Walt Disney and the industry he nurtured.

Highlights of the Disney Family Museum include:

■The earliest known drawings of Mickey Mouse

■Animation cels of Disney's characters

■Storyboards, a Disney innovation, that map out timeless film classics

■The innovative Multiplane Camera that revolutionized animation

■The unique Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Academy Award: one full-size Oscar and seven miniature castings

■A model of the Disneyland of Walt's imagination

■The one-eighth scale train he installed at his Hollywood home that spurred his vision for Disneyland

Museum Contact Information:

104 Montgomery Street

The Presidio of San Francisco

San Francisco, California 94129

415-345-6800

http://disney.go.com/disneyatoz/familymuseum/index.html