DuPage Children's Museum celebrates 25 years

Twenty five years ago, the DuPage Children's Museum was stuffed into a box that had held a Thanksgiving turkey.

That's where Louise Beem and Dorothy Carpenter stored their homemade exhibits and files, carting them around in a station wagon and traveling from school to school, park district to park district.

Today, their vision has grown to a 46,800-square-foot museum in Naperville that attracts 300,000 visitors a year. But most importantly, it's a place filled every day with curious minds and smiles.

The vision of Beem and Carpenter came from their backgrounds in early childhood education. In the 1980s, hands-on learning was the buzzword, Beem said.

She said Carpenter, who died last year, was always on the lookout for fun ways to teach and intrigue children, especially her grandchildren.

“Dorothy had her grandchildren, and I had mine, and we were constantly trying to find appropriate things to do with them. Dorothy, especially, was woefully disappointed of what was available locally for the children,” Beem said. “We realized we needed to do something about it so I told her, 'I'll work with you for a year and let's see what we can do.' I can't believe that was 25 years ago.”

During that first year, Beem designed the first traveling exhibit and named it “Ramps and Rollers,” which remains a popular exhibit today. Beem said the idea of teaching kids to roll balls of different sizes down beveled areas of wooden ramps, changing the speeds by titling the ramps to various angles, came to her one day when she visited a classroom with only modest supplies and saw children applying the same concept using marbles and blocks.

“It was so simple, yet they were so engaged,” Beem said. “I left there that day determined to share that joy with other youngsters, and it became our first exhibit.”

Beem just couldn't walk away after a year, and the museum persisted.

From the beginning, Beem and Carpenter set out to create a museum where kids could nurture their artistic sensibilities and dig their hands into real-life science.

The women found a series of semi-permanent sites until, in 1992, the Wheaton Park District opened up the lower level of its community center on Blanchard Road.

The Wheaton site would serve as a pilot museum — a place to test exhibits and build support. By 1994, when attendance surged to nearly 115,000 annual visitors, museum leaders began their search for a permanent location.

For two years, they worked on a proposal to buy a Wheaton building, only to have the deal fall through. Then the museum's directors heard about the former Moser Lumber building at 301 N. Washington St. just north of downtown Naperville.

On May 19, 2001, after years of renovation and preparation, they opened the doors at the current location. There the number of annual visitors tripled from the Wheaton days, and the museum also boasts a membership of 7,500 families.

Through all the growth, President and CEO Sue Broad said, the museum has maintained its commitment to facilitate learning “in a one-of-a-kind interactive environment, based on the latest brain development research.”

Carpenter died of heart failure on April 28, 2011, at the age of 83. Beem said she knows her friend and “partner in crime” would share the sense of pride Beem feels today.

“What Sue (Broad) and her staff has accomplished is nothing short of miraculous due to strong staff they have and dedication,” Beem said. “I am most proud that the museum is doing exactly what we set out to do, and that is help adults understand how children learn and construct their own knowledge. The museum has been very loyal to that without succumbing to commercial elements.”

Carpenter's declining health had prevented her from being active in the museum in the years preceding her death, but her son David Carpenter serves on the museum's board of directors. He says his mother would absolutely agree with Beem.

“To say the museum was a focal point would be a preposterous understatement,” he said. “Both women were real believers in value of what they were doing. As for my mother, compared to what the initial plans were, she would be absolutely overwhelmed at what the DuPage Children's Museum has become.”

Beem said she can only imagine where the museum will be in the next 25 years.

“When I compare 25 years ago and now, it boggles my head, so projecting 25 years ahead absolutely does me in,” Beem said. “But I do hope eventually we can get an outdoor space and more climbing space. Who knows? And this technology stuff just keeps going places I never imagined.”

The museum will host the Biggest, Best Birthday Bash in honor of its 25th birthday from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The celebration will include a variety of special activities and music.

“I wouldn't miss it for the world,” Beem said. “I don't get out much anymore but I am planning on being there Sunday.”

DuPage Children's Museum Timeline

June 24, 1987 Louise Beem and Dorothy Carpenter establish a founding board for the DuPage Children's Museum and adopt a mission statement that remains relevant today.

1988 The museum and its exhibits travel to park districts, scout troops, preschools and other organizations and serve 2,664 visitors. Some of the early traveling exhibits still draw crowds today, such as the handmade Ramps and Rollers.

1989 The museum finds a home in the Elmhurst Park District, and attracts 7,080 visitors.

1990 The museum hires its first paid staff, part-time employee Ebie Morris. It also signs an agreement with the Wheaton Park District to lease 7,300 square feet in a new Community Center.

1991 Launches campaign to raise $350,000 to open in Wheaton.

1992 A full-time museum opens in the Wheaton Park District Community Center. Hillary Clinton visits. Susan Broad joins DuPage Children's Museum as its second executive director.

1993 Museum creates a school outreach program to bring hands-on Learning labs to the area classrooms.

1994 Attendance grows to almost 115,000 and a new strategic plan is devised; one objective is find a permanent home for the museum in DuPage County. Also, 341 new programs for adults and children are launched.

1997 DuPage Children's Museum celebrates its 10th birthday at the Wheaton site. Aunty Math, an innovative, interactive website debuts by posting math problems as real-life stories, and inviting children to submit answers. In September, the museum acquires the former Moser Lumber showroom and office at 301 N. Washington in Naperville.

1998 The museum opens two new exhibits at the Wheaton location — Kinetic Motion Machine and Fish Out of Water, the first in a series of exhibits for the planned Creativity Connections Neighborhood.

2000 With $8 million raised, construction begins.

2001 Wheaton site closes March 31, The new DuPage Children's Museum opens in Naperville on May 19.

2002 DuPage Children's Museum sees more than 300,000 visitors and 11,000 members in its first year. Museum also opens its third Young Explorers Exhibit for toddlers up to 24 months.

2004 On Dec. 21, the museum celebrates its one millionth visitor family since relocating to Naperville.

2005 Becames first children's museum to have its own blog, How Learning Comes In to Play! (www.childrensmuseumblog.blogspot.com)

2006 First major traveling exhibit for families with older children. Jump to Japan invites visitors to explore Japanese life and culture through the popular art forms of Anime and Manga.

2009 Museum's CHAMPION advocacy effort secures more than 3,000 testimonials to the impact that the museum has had on early learning in the community.

2011 In April, the museum mourns the passing of co-founder Dorothy Carpenter.

2012 DuPage Children's Museum celebrates 25 years.