Disney Imagineering's Oldest Library Item Revealed: 18th Century Encyclopedias

The Imagineering Library at Walt Disney's theme park team has been around for decades, but the tools they use have been in existence for even longer. A recent episode of the 'Imagineer That' YouTube series took a peek behind the scenes to find out what's the oldest item in their library. The team visited the Information Research Center and Principal Librarian Stacy Schoff showed off some early items from the Disney Imagineering days, including park maps and a maintenance manual for Pirates of the Caribbean.

The California side had older material due to its earlier establishment, but surprisingly, the oldest item dated back even further - 200 years prior to Disneyland's opening. This item is a set of French encyclopedias from 1751. Although not specified how they were used, it can be imagined that these gave direction to Imagineers for projects like Sleeping Beauty Castle.

What stood out was the old physical card system for checking books, which included names like John Hench and Mary Blair. This shows how the team's methods of working have evolved over time.