When Brooklyn Public Library’s Brower Park branch moves into the Brooklyn Children’s Museum sometime in 2019, the institution’s staff will revive a unique lending program they abandoned in the 1960s that allowed members to take home artifacts from the museum’s 30,000-piece collection. Honchos have yet to work out exactly how the initiative will work, and which items will be on loan, but here are a few of the more interesting artifacts that kids may be able to borrow for show-and-tell.
A stuffed owl
Nothing causes a hoot among youngsters quite like a dead animal. The Brooklyn Children’s Museum has an impressive collection of taxidermied creatures, including this eastern screech-owl, a proficient hunter of woodland rodents.
An African harp
All kids should learn how to play an instrument, so why not start with this arched harp, a musical invention of central Africa.
The ultimate accessory
Budding designers can draw inspiration from this mola, a hand-stitched panel that Panamanian women used to decorate their blouses and to show off their skills with a needle and thread.
The original fire engine
This iron horse-and-carriage figurine is actually a steam-powered water pump that was on the cutting edge of fire-fighting technology — at the dawn of the 20th century.
A shadow actor
Puppet theater is considered high art in some Southeast-Asian countries, and features creations like this Indonesian shadow-puppet, a perfect learning aide for the budding thespian.
