Walt Disney Family Museum opening in SF

Walt Disney's only living daughter, Diana Disney Miller, and various other family members have announced the upcoming opening of a museum built to highlight the iconic visionary's accomplishments and home life.

The new museum will be called The Walt Disney Family Museum. Planned for a fall 2009 opening, the museum will cost $112 million and will be overseen by Richard Benefield, the former deputy director of the Harvard University Art Museums.

The exhibit will showcase Walt's personal items such as never-before-seen home movies and early Disney artifacts like Steamboat Willie animation cels.

The museum is being funded by the family's foundation and bond sales. The building will be located in three historic buildings in the Presidio of San Francisco.

A walk through the new museum will take visitors chronologically through Disney history and the space is being outfitted with over 200 video monitors and a 120-seat screening area.

The Disney family has had little chance to show the human side of Walt Disney. Because the Walt Disney company owns the founder's name and likeness, almost all requests for the new museum have had to be fielded by corporate executives before being give the go-ahead.

Miller, now 75, said she was compelled to tell her father's story with a different point of view. “My kids have literally encountered people who didn’t know that my father was a person ... They think he’s just some kind of corporate logo,” said Miller.