From Window magazine: Culture Collector

Doug Dreier (’96, English/Theater) never gets tired of the typical reaction: Picture little Charlie Bucket entering Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for the first time, eyes as big as saucers with a mixed expression of “holy cow” and “somebody pinch me” written all over his face.

This is the way most visitors react when they walk in the door of The Dreier Collection, one of America’s foremost private collections of American popular culture, often dubbed “The Smithsonian of the West.”

“Walking in and getting handed Babe Ruth’s bat pretty much sets the tone,” Dreier said. “After that, it’s basically one ‘Oh my gosh’ after another for the rest of their tour.”

In a lot of ways, Dreier is a lot like Wonka: As fulltime curator of his family’s collection, he’s a consummate showman and proud host to swarms of eager guests drawn to the rare, amazing artifacts from sports, entertainment, and popular culture – from a fabled Honus Wagner baseball card to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber to Michael Jackson’s blinking, lighted glove. And like the group of children touring the chocolate factory in Roald Dahl’s timeless classic, guests coming through The Dreier Collection leave mesmerized by what they’ve seen while knowing they have only barely scratched its surface.

Read the rest of this story on the Web site for Window magazine, or watch an audio slideshow of Dreier talking about a few of the items in his family's collection.