Charles M. Schulz Museum

UPDATE: I've noticed a couple of inquiries coming to this post from the Schulz Museum (welcome, by the way), so I've added some photos below of my collection of Peanuts books that were gifts to me in the 60's, or books that I used my allowance to buy. They're still treasured possessions (and frankly in better shape than the same editions that were on display in the gift shop).

As mentioned in a previous post, I had some time to kill this afternoon while in the Santa Rosa area to pick up my daughter for summer break, and I decided to visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. I understand the museum part, but I'm not sure what they're researching. Some possible ideas:

• Do trees really eat kites?


• Can a beagle reach the rudder pedals on a Sopwith Camel?


• How does Charlie Brown scratch his head with those tiny arms?


• Is it possible to completely undress a pitcher with a line drive?


• How did Snoopy have room for a cedar closet, pool table and Van Gogh in his doghouse?

I obviously had too much time on my hands.

The museum was built on property that was either part of Schulz's home or right next to it, and across the street from the ice skating rink he built in 1969. He used to walk from his home to The Warm Puppy Cafe' in the skating rink for breakfast and lunch every day. I had lunch there today, and right by the window Schulz's old table is still reserved in his honor.

The skating rink is pretty impressive. There are whole generations of Santa Rosa area kids who developed a love for ice skating and hockey thanks to this facility. Schulz used to play here in a seniors hockey tournament, as well as pick-up games with the locals.

Back in the museum, there's a large tile mosaic of Charlie Brown and Lucy and their famous football kicking (or not kicking) routine.
What's amazing about that mosaic is that it's made up of individual tiles, each of which has a different Peanuts cartoon printed on it. Here's what Charlie Brown's mouth and part of his nose look like up close:

Very cool. On the second floor they've moved all of Shulz's office furniture over from the house and have recreated his studio.

I was such a fan of the Peanuts strips when I was a kid that looking at the drawing table where they were created was a bit like walking through Air Force One at the Reagan Library, or touring Ford's Theater and the Peterson Rooming House in Washington D.C. Important stuff happened here, even if it was only a collection of simple drawings and funny stories.
On the other side of the skating rink is a large gift shop, and upstairs is a small area of Peanuts memorabilia (it used to be the museum). They have displays of various Peanuts collection books over the years, and I found the first display of the earliest Peanuts books particularly interesting. Why? I have all the books they showed in the display.Holt, Rinehart and Winston used to put those books out for $1. I have a bunch of them since that was the era in which I was collecting them (I wonder what they're worth today - my copies are in much better shape than the ones they have on display). I also have this book that was on display:
Finally, they have a stained-glass window in the display area that I thought was pretty cool so I had to get a shot:
It's an inexpensive place to visit and well worth the trip for those fans of the strip. You'll see lots of Schulz's original artwork, including a great many cartoons that I remembered from my collections. It was a real trip down memory lane.

UPDATE: I pulled my collection of Peanuts books out of storage and took some photos:

I only have two hard backed books:

And, you may have noticed a couple of books in the collection above that don't have the traditional Peanuts characters that everybody knows. These two:

These books are cartoons written by Schulz that depicted life in a church youth group. Being in a church youth group at the time I got these, they made perfect sense to me and they're very funny. They were given to me by my grandparents for Christmas in 1967.