Little Pocket Dragons aren’t only a part of Barbara Newtown’s collection, they are also for sale in the gift shop.If you’ve ever driven by the Dragon Dreams Museum and Gift Shop on East Brainerd Road and have always thought about stopping by, better not delay.
Owner and museum curator and collector extraordinare Barbara Newton is looking to find a new home for her world-record-contending collection, which means after Christmas, the museum could be no more.
Newton, who is a retired veterinarian and has owned the museum since 1991, has health problems that keep her from running the museum and collecting like she used to.
The museum is the home of dragons – figurines, stuffed animals, plates, anything with a dragon on it. Antiques to collectibles, propaganda to jewelry, it’s all there.
Newton is looking for someone to take her collection and build a museum somewhere else.
For her, it all started in 1976 when she saw a cute little dragon popping out of its eggshell at a friend’s house in California.
“She took me to an art show thinking the artist would be there and I could buy one, but he wasn’t,” Newton said. “I just thought it was so neat, and in my decades of collecting, I have never found one like it.”
That initial hook was enough to inspire her to start a collection that has outgrown one house and spanned decades.
“I have an affinity for them. They just make me happy,” she said from her home. Though only up the hill from the museum and gift shop, Newton’s health forces her to stay home while a college student runs the museum when it’s open.
“My great wish is that my collection can live on in a place that can be viewed by the public,” Newton said. “I’m not going to sell it piece by piece on eBay. I’m not going to just throw it away.”
To her, the collection is a testament to learning about new cultures and places and handiwork. Her shop and her museum, a must-see for Chattanoogans, welcomes scores of nice people who appreciate dragons too.
Newton’s hoping someone will come by and take all the dragons home with them.
“If someone likes dragons as much as I do, or someone thinks it’s worth keeping them together like this, I want to meet them,” she said. “I want them to go to a good home.”
While Newton will miss her collection, she said she’ll keep her favorites.
“But I know they are just things. In the end, I can’t take them with me when I go,” she said.