McCormick School Museum - Wichita, Kansas The McCormick School Museum in Wichita, Kansas is in a handsome stone school building which opened in 1888 when there were four class rooms and four teachers. The first addition was in 1911 and matches the original structure so well that most people do not notice it is an addition which doubled the size of the school. There were two more additions prior to the school closing in 1992, the same year that the McCormick School Museum & Science Center was opened. Although some class rooms have been set up as a library or museum, many are now period classrooms. My favorite is the replica of East High School's 1923 science laboratory. It is fascinating and has unusual items, such as a bell jar with a hand pump to create a vacuum. The basement has a working print shop which uses a restored 1876 Washington Flatbed Newspaper Press. There is a planetarium projector displayed in a hall, but there was no label on it. The museum has since informed me that it is a Spitz Model 1-A and was originally at Topeka's Washburn University in the 1950s. It was replaced by a new projector when the planetarium was moved to a new building in 1966. The old projector was installed in Wichita's Stanley Elementary in the 1980s and was used for a number of years before coming to the McCormick Museum. McCormick School was the only school in Wichita with a bell tower and a large school bell. The bell was rung every morning and afternoon at the start and close of the school day. The bell tower was removed in the mid 1930s, but a reconstruction of the original 1890 bell tower dedicated on August 9, 1983 and houses the original bell. The museum has several collections of Works Progress Administration dolls. From 1935-1940 the WPA employed people to make sets of figurines depicting famous people, historical clothing and foreign costumes for display in museums and schools. In 1940, the Museum Project #6051 employed 63 workers, most of whom were women, to make the paper mâché and cloth dolls in Wichita. Each pair of dolls were dressed in costume clothing depicting 26 different nations. The materials use were locally obtained and cost $1 a pair. Guided tours can be arranged by appointment.
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