Walt’s business card. Maquette models from Beauty and the Beast. A Mickey Mouse children’s book in Bulgarian. Background art from 101 Dalmatians. Boxes of memos from Roy Disney. These are a few of the treasures of Disney history which the company has saved in The Archives and The Animation Research Library.
The Walt Disney Archives was created in 1970 and is a collection of books, periodicals, corporate correspondence, and other items from the history of the company. Founder Dave Smith states the purpose of the archive is “to collect and preserve all the history of Disney and make it available to the people who need it. It is primarily for company use but serious students and writers doing research on Disney subjects can make an appointment to use the collection as well.”
The Animation Research Library emerged from the Animation Department’s morgue in the late 1980s. It houses art from all of Disney’s 36 animated features and numerous short subjects. It caters to artists in Disney’s Feature Animation division and is not open to the public.
An Interview with Dave Smith of The Disney Archives
Katie Mason: You founded the Archives in 1970. What moved you to do this?
Dave Smith: I had been working as a librarian at UCLA for five years, and I’d done a little work with Disney. On my own, I’d prepared a Disney bibliography, listing Disney films, television shows, books and things like that. […]
