Kids, don’t sit in the house.
Come to Springfield to play!
There’s a new place in town
on this warm, sunny day.
In the city of Springfield
there’s a new gallery
all about Dr. Seuss
and his menagerie.
There’s the Pup in the Cup,
the Lorax and the Groo,
the red fish, the blue fish
and Thing One and Thing Two.
There’s Yertle the Turtle,
Horton and his Who,
Beaches full of Sneetches
and McElligot’s Pool.
See the Hop-on-Pop kids.
the Wickersham Brothers,
Wocket in the pocket
and all of the others.
Like the Grinch and the Zax
and dear Gertrude McFuzz,
the craziest of creatures
oh, that ever there was.
Yes, they’re all to be found
— reading, history and mirth —
in this homage to Seuss
in the town of his birth.
The museum is fun
for the kids, Mom and Dad.
Come and bring picnic food.
What a day to be had!
The children’s-book author,
he was raised in this town
near the Forest Park Zoo,
where the sights and the sounds
of the animals made
little Ted Geisel think
of making his own zoo
out of paper and ink.
Not with lions, tigers
giraffes or kangaroos.
Ted, now called Dr. Seuss,
filled his cages with proos,
with preeps and with nerkles
and lunks in a bucket
Seuss’ zookeeper found in
the wilds of Nantucket.
And he did even more,
Dr. Seuss, as he looked
at his beloved town
through the pages of books.
There was Mulberry Street,
Springfield’s main thoroughfare.
Dr. Seuss imagined
things that weren’t really there.
An elephant pulling
a big sleigh like a kite.
An airplane, confetti,
the police force on bikes.
That was the beginning
of Ted Geisel’s career
of spinning kids’ stories
both wondrous and weird.
He created the Grinch
and Cindy Lou Who,
Sam-I-Am and his ham
and David Donald Doo.
And the greatest of all,
that tall Cat in that hat,
who rules the museum
like an aristocrat.
All these things can be seen
in this Dr. Seuss-land
along with a show of
many works in Ted’s hand.
Drawings and artifacts,
letters, cards, pencils, pens
used by the doctor himself
while inventing his friends.
Best of all reading nooks
filled with Dr. Seuss books
await all the children.
So come on take a look.
Oh, the places you’ll go
when you visit the cat
and the rest of Ted’s crowd.
They’re in Springfield. Now scat.
In Other Words…
The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss, the newest gallery in the Springfield Museums complex, is the world’s only museum dedicated to the life and work of Theodor Seuss Giesel, also known as Dr. Seuss, who was born in Springfield, Mass., on March 2, 1904.
Visitors can wander through two floors of exhibits about Dr. Seuss. The first floor features statues and wall murals of Seuss characters, art-making stations, reading nooks and interactive games. The explanatory material is in English and Spanish. The first floor also has educational features covering Seuss’ early life. The second floor has a recreation of Seuss’ studio and living room and a display of Seuss letters, documents, early sketches, books and Emmys. The items in the second floor were curated by Geisel’s two stepdaughters and his great nephew.
Because of space constraints in the converted mansion, The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss can be seen with timed tickets only, 200 visitors each hour, starting at 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Half of each day’s timed tickets are sold online. The other half are sold in the box office. Admission is $25, $16.50 seniors and students, $13 ages 3 to 17, free to ages 2 and younger.
Admission tickets are good for all the museums in the complex, which is at 21 Edwards St. Picnics are welcome on the museum grounds, which is the site of the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden. springfieldmuseums.org.
