Ah, the great institution of the yard sale. What else can get so many people to spend a day just driving around buying other people’s junk? As one of those people going from yard sale to yard sale I’m looking for a treasure. For as they say: “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure!”

Today, I found a treasure with ‘treasure’ kind of in its name:

The Disney Treasury/Walt Disney Archives

Thanks to Dave Smith, who is the founder and former chief archivist at the Walt Disney Archives, for starting Disney on the path of preserving its heritage. Due to his efforts we now have a wealth of collectibles and animation artifacts to appreciate for years to come!

He joined the company on June 22, 1970. His first task was to document all the items in Walt Disney’s office which had sat dormant since his death in 1966. I don’t think there was a puzzle on his desk…

Since then he has compiled one of the most impressive collections of Disneyana in the world, as depicted on the cover of the above puzzle box.

Unopened, so all pieces obviously complete

It’s fun to look at images like the one on The Disney Treasury puzzle box to see how many items are in your personal collection. I have quite a few of the items but not as many as I would like!

There is a display case in The Disneyland Hotel that looks quite similar to the image here, and for a good reason. It’s because this puzzle is a photograph of that exact showcase! And I was standing in front of it in 2013:

Dare to compare

You can look from left to right in the above images and compare the display case to the puzzle box image. Note that if you look at the left-most image of the display case, you’ll see what didn’t make it onto the puzzle box cover.

I’m constantly amazed at how many Disney connections can be made, sometimes years apart!