Dr. Seuss Museum Invite then Crickets

I wanted to share some of the correspondence that I’ve had with Dr. Seuss Museum’s Director of Public Relations and Marketing, Karen Fisk. It started after this AP article was published and I was included in the AP video.

Oh the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss museum opens its doors Associated Press

“The first national museum dedicated to the beloved children’s author and illustrator Dr. Seuss has opened in his hometown of Springfield, Mass. But Theodore Geisel’s early controversial political illustrations are conspicuously absent.” (June 5)AP

Karen Fisk contacted me to invite me to visit.

May 25, 2017

Hi Mia,

I wanted to say hello and reach out to see if you would like to visit the Dr. Seuss Museum as my guest. Please let me know.

We have not yet completed the work we are doing to acknowledge and discuss the work Theodor Geisel did that you address in your most recent column, but we know it is important and complicated and needs to be discussed.  We intend to have programming and literature on the subject.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Karen

Karen Fisk

Director of Public Relations & Marketing

Springfield Museums & Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden

May 29, 2017

Hi, I tried to contact you via an email address Megan Lambert gave me.

I would like to invite you to the new Dr. Seuss Museum and to talk with you about the programing we have in development to acknowledge and address the political cartoons of Ted Geisel’s early career.

Please contact me. I would like to meet you and talk about the very important issues you are discussing on Pragmatic Mom.

Thank you, Karen

Karen Fisk
Director of Public Relations & Marketing
Springfield Museums & Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden

After the New York Times piece by Sopan Deb, she responded to my cynical comment.

June 23, 2017

Hi Mia, I wanted to check in again about your upcoming visit. I guess you could interpret my invitation a number of ways as you did in the recent NY Times article, but I meant it as a genuine hand of friendship. Megan Lambert is my colleague and first drew my attention to your website. I very much appreciate your work and I was (and am) curious to meet you. Here is a story Megan did about the museum for Horn Book.

We do not currently have any exhibits that address Seuss’s political cartoons, although we did have an exhibit in the past. The catalog for that exhibit is on sale in our museum store as is Richard Minear’s book Dr. Seuss Goes to War.  We are in the midst of preparing an exhibit that will be shown in the Wood Museum of History.

Anyway, I look forward to meeting you in person, Karen

June 24, 2017

Hi Karen,
I’m working on a piece right now based on the recent articles on the Dr. Seuss Museum

Can you tell me how many people of color are on the Springfield Museums Board of Trustees and their ethnicity?

Also, can I get this same ethic breakdown for the Senior Staff. It can be by percentage i.e. 10% Asian American, 20% African American etc.

I’ve found that decisions regarding addressing racism (or not) is controlled by decision makers who are well meaning and don’t consider themselves White Supremacists or racist, but are spreading a White Narrative simply because everyone with input is white. I had this same issue with my high school, Newton North, when they decided put on a racist musical:

http://ilovenewton.com/modern-millie-racist/

Also, what was the name of the Dr. Seuss political cartoon exhibit that ran in the Springfield Museums and what year did it run?

Thanks,

Mia

As I write this post, it is July 29 and I have not heard back from Karen Fisk. I wonder what the ethnicity make up of the governing board of the museum and the senior staff is? Perhaps they are completely void of people of color?

As for the Dr. Seuss political cartoon exhibit at the Springfields Museum, why the secrecy? Apparently the book created for the exhibit sells at the Dr. Seuss Museum bookstore.

My eldest daughter, Grasshopper and Sensei, wrote her Junior history thesis on the Japanese Internment. We are both curious about the Dr. Seuss Museum and we plan to visit once her RISD Pre-College program is done.

Related Posts:
Dr. Seuss is a Racist

Rethinking & Examining Dr. Seuss’ Racism

What Would You Do If You Ran the Dr. Seuss Museum?

Japanese Internment Books for Kids and My Family’s Story

My books:

BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.

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