1990 Advertising Brochure Teddy Bear Museum of Naples Florida EX

Description

Brochure from the Teddy Bear Museum of Naples Florida.
Measures approximately 9 by 16 inches.  A few kinks.  Please see photos.
The museum started when Frances Pew Hayes received a small
M&M's
teddy bear from a grandchild. After this, she started collecting
teddy bears
and opened the museum six years later, in 1990. The collection expanded to around 5,500 individual bears until the museum closed. Many of the bears were donated from private collectors. In the late 1990s, the Museum was sold to
North Collier Hospital
, and the hospital planned to relocate the museum to a new location as part of a new children's hospital. The plan fell through, and the museum was again separated.
In 2005, a year after Hayes died, the museum director, George Black (known among museum staff and volunteers as 'Brownie'), announced that the museum would be closed and all of the exhibits would be sold off. Reasons included rising operating costs, a lack of volunteers, and flat admission numbers.