While Shirley Temple, the famously dimpled child star danced, sang and smiled her way into hearts throughout the Great Depression years of the 1930s, her mother, Gertrude Temple, was busy preserving the memorabilia that attended her daughter’s more than 40 films of the decade. Film costumes, props, celebrity gifts, dolls, toys, playthings, all were cherished and carefully saved by Shirley and her family for some 80 years…until today.

Now, a number of pieces from the private family archives will be coming to the Santa Monica History Museum, one of the five museums in the world to exhibit the collection.