Baylor's Mayborn Museum Opens New Discovery Room

Media contact: Lori Fogleman, director of media communications, (254) 710-6275

- 'Aunt Blanche's Tea Room' features extensive collection of American Children's Glass -

One of the world's largest collections of American Children's Glass is on permanent display - several pieces at a time - in the Mayborn Museum Complex's newest Discovery Room in the Jeanes Discovery Center.

"Aunt Blanche's Tea Room" was dedicated and opened to the public for the first time on March 7, becoming the museum's 17th Discovery Room that provides visitors with hands-on, interactive learning activities.

"Blanche Largent was an avid collector who loved museums and Baylor University," said Dr. Ellie Caston, director of the Mayborn Museum Complex. "Fortunately for us, she combined these passions and gave her extensive collection of children's glass to Baylor's Mayborn Museum."

The Mayborn's newest niche - a unique blend of child-friendly furniture and museum-quality display cases - allows young visitors to have imaginary tea parties with plastic tea sets while being surrounded by pieces from the Blanche Largent Collection.

"It has been our joy to create Aunt Blanche's Team Room that not only highlights her beautiful glass collection but puts it into context in an informative and fun manner," Caston said. "Who knows, we may inspire a young collector."

Along with being a locally renowned speech instructor, Blanche Mueller Largent (BA '43) of Houston, was a member of Baylor's Old Main Society, Endowed Scholarship Society and the Strecker Associates. Prior to her death in June 2004, Largent not only gave her collection of glass to--what was then--the Strecker Museum, but also included Baylor University in her estate plans. Through her foresight and generosity, funds from the Largent estate have undergirded the development of Mayborn in many ways, including the creation of the Blanche Mueller Largent Endowment for the Institute of Museology. Largent's gift also has endowed student scholarships in the area of Baylor athletics, of which she was an ardent fan.

Blanche's sister, Martha Lee "Moppy" Davis of Navasota, Texas, along with her husband, Roy, were among the special guests who attended the tea room's grand opening. As Blanche was a lifelong collector of American Children's Glass, she and Moppy are said to have had their own tea times as children, playing with some of the very tea sets and tiny punch bowls currently in the collection.

Baylor's Mayborn Museum Complex is located at 1300 S. University Parks Dr. in Waco. For more information about hours of operation and admission, call (254) 710-1110 or visit to the Mayborn Museum Complex web site.