Happy Birthday

Princess Diana

July 1, 1998

Diana museum delights first tourists

By Jill Serjeant

ALTHORP HOUSE, England (Reuters) - They came in their hundreds, bearing flowers and cards to pay tribute to Princess Diana on her birthday and eager to see her childhood home and final resting place.

Althorp House, the Spencer family's rural estate, flung open its gates Wednesday to welcome Diana fans and curious onlookers to a new museum and a first glimpse of the island on which she is buried.

Diana's brother, Earl Charles Spencer, greeted the visitors with smiles and posed for photographs in the grounds of the house which cynics have slammed as "Dianaville," but which the first delighted tourists called tasteful and dignified.

"It is wonderful. It is the right place for her. I can feel she is here. There is a fantastic feeling of peace," said Susan Shepherd, who came with her 11-year-old daughter. "You can imagine Diana running around the garden as a girl and reading the books in the library," Shepherd said.

Inside the grounds of the stately home in central England, a Diana museum -- the first and so far only memorial to the "People's Princess" -- celebrates her life with exhibitions of her toys, clothes, her romantic 1981 wedding dress and poignant films of a care-free child dancing in the gardens and later on a fun-fair ride with sons William and Harry.

In a temple by the side of the island lake where Diana lays at rest, flowers and written tributes piled up through the day as they had done outside Kensington Palace and the then locked gates of Althorp House last September.

"It was very tasteful, well put together and very moving," said 33-year-old Susan McNulty. "People were quiet and reflective," she said, adding that it was well worth the $16 entrance fee.

From the early school reports to moving footage of her funeral, the museum traced the life of the girl who became a princess and touched the hearts of millions with her unique blend of glamour, compassion and love-hate relationship with the media who pursued her until death.

But the men in her life were notable only for their absence. Visitors said the museum made no mention of Dodi Al Fayed -- the man who died with her in the Paris car crash and who appeared to have won her heart in the last two months of her life. Prince Charles, her estranged husband, plays only a walk-on role.

"It's as if the Spencers are trying to reclaim her as their own," commented one visitor.

For Diana fans -- predominantly women -- the opening of Althorp House was a moment they had been awaiting for almost a year.

There were some tears but serenity too. "Her loss is only just sinking in. People are only now beginning to realise how much good she did. We are sad but we are going to look on the bright side of her life," said Shirley Norgrove.

Most of the limited 150,000 tickets for the eight-week season were snapped up within days of going on sale six months ago. Japanese tourist Reiko Nishiyama, 22, had no ticket but flew over from Tokyo to visit Althorp anyway.

"It is Diana's birthday. I am very curious about her and appreciate what she did. I wanted to be at Althorp today," she said.

Lady Diana

remembered by the world

when she died so young and so tragicly,

remembered with the sea of flowers

left by those who loved her so...

Visitors flock to Diana museum on first day, July 1, 1998

GREAT BRINGTON, England (CNN) -- On what would have been Princess Diana's 37th birthday, her admirers passed through the imposing stone gates of her ancestral home Wednesday to pay their respects and to view mementos of a life that ended nearly a year ago.

Althorp House, the estate in rural Northamptonshire where Diana grew up and is now buried, opened to 2,500 visitors, giving the public the first chance to glimpse her island grave and see a museum built by her brother, Earl Spencer. About 150,000 visitors are expected in the next two months.

Visitor facilities at Althorp include a restaurant and a shop selling a range of souvenirs associated with Diana "but not cheapening her memory in any way," the estate says.

"This is her birthday. It is a nice tribute and we wanted to be part of it," said Iris Simnett, who with her daughter and grandsons were among the first to walk through the iron gates. "Last year the family had their time alone to grieve. This is for the people to pay tribute. That is why we are here," she said.

Iwona Skibinski, 31, and her husband drove from Duesseldorf, Germany, just to visit Althorp.

"She did so many good works -- such as her anti-land mines campaign and caring for children all over the world," said Mrs. Skibinski. "And that really touched me."

In the emotional weeks after Diana died in a high-speed car crash in Paris on August 31, Althorp House in central England became a place of pilgrimage for thousands of grief-stricken mourners.

They laid flowers at the iron gates and left notes and poems but were barred from entering the grounds where Diana's body was buried away from the glare of the cameras she had both sought and spurned.

The 2,500 tickets for the opening day of Althorp House -- the first and so far only official memorial to Diana -- were snapped up within hours of going on sale six months ago and only a handful remain for the limited two-month season that ends on August 30, the eve of Diana's death.

Bearing flowers and poems and wearing Diana T-shirts, mothers with babes in arms or children in strollers walked into Althorp Wednesday to pay tribute once again to the princess.

"I want to know where Diana is buried," said 5-year-old George Sladden, who has a picture of the princess on his bedroom wall.

"The real loss is only just sinking in. People are only now realizing how much good she did," said Shirley Norgrove, who phoned for five hours to get a ticket for the opening day.

Inside the grounds, visitors saw a museum housing the romantic wedding dress Diana wore for her 1981 marriage to Prince Charles. Diana's toys, her school reports and film of her charity work with AIDS patients and land mine victims are also on display.

One of the most moving exhibits is a collection of home videos showing Diana as a carefree child dancing and playing in the gardens of Althorp. Her brother Earl Charles Spencer, owner of Althorp, described the anguish of editing the films for the museum. "I was absolutely drained for two days. It was really sad to see this little girl running around and to know what happened to her when she grew older," he said.

Another section of the museum contains film footage and music from Diana's emotion-charged funeral along with a copy of the oration given by Spencer in which he attacked both the media and the royal family.

A walkway leads from the museum to the lake, where Diana's grave on the island is marked by a large urn carved in Portland stone. Access to the island itself is barred but there is a temple where flowers and notes can be laid below a plaque paying tribute to "the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana."

Cynics have dubbed the opening of Althorp House and its museum, souvenir shop and cafe a "Dianaville" that will make Althorp as famous as Elvis Presley's Graceland home outside Memphis, Tennessee.

It's not yet clear how the proceeds will be distributed. Some of the money may go directly to Diana's favorite charities in addition to her official memorial fund, some of whose activities Spencer has described as tacky and tasteless.

Other proceeds may be used to help offset the cost of Althorp's recent renovation.

The tiny nearby village of Great Brington is nervous about an invasion of Diana fans disturbing its sleepy lanes and has put up locked wooden gates barring access from Althorp House to the village.

Correspondent Margaret Lowrie, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.