Community is one of the most playful shows on television. The comedy about a study group at dysfunctional Greendale Community College not only features unconventional storytelling methods and an innovative visual style, but its characters actually play—all the time. And either its writers have been looking to The Strong for episode ideas, or the toys and games featured on the show are simply as iconic as our experts say they are. In honor of the show’s fifth-season premiere on January […]

Continue Reading about Screen-Play: NBC’s Community and the National Toy Hall of Fame Published on:
January 1, 2014

The National Toy Hall of Fame hasn’t embraced cuddly toys in a couple of years. Of course I was thrilled to see The Strong honor the rubber duck recently (have you seen my wedding cake?). But it’s the soft, snuggly playthings—the blanket, the teddy bear, Raggedy Ann and Andy—that give me warm fuzzies. These are the toys that comforted us as kids.
Children can’t resist touchable toys. Peanuts fans rarely see Linus without his security blanket against his cheek. Taggies blankets […]

Continue Reading about Creature Comforts: Toys that Soothe Published on:
November 26, 2013

Hello, autumn. As pumpkins, parsnips, and apples signal the harvest, I’m gathering artifacts from The Strong’s collections related to a time when farmers were called away to war and civilians rescued the food supply.
World War I sent many of Europe’s male food growers to the front, leaving farms shorthanded at best. The war efforts commandeered rail lines essential for food distribution and disrupted trade between conflicting countries. Food shortages forced severe rationing, leaving Europe in dire straits. One month before […]

Continue Reading about War Gardens: Winning the Food Fight on Home Soil Published on:
October 28, 2013

I met some naughty kids when I worked as a babysitter and camp counselor. But after five years with the National Museum of Play at The Strong, I’ve observed enough children to know the good ones far outnumber the brats and that misbehavior, when it occurs, isn’t limited to one gender. So why do little boys get a bad rap? Look at the way cartoonists have portrayed them over the years. If I may paraphrase a line from Jessica Rabbit: […]

Continue Reading about The Kids Are Alright Published on:
August 27, 2013

Nobody puts Bubbie in a corner. (Oy.)

I think of the movie Dirty Dancing (1987) whenever I see this poolside photo of my grandparents at Grossinger’s resort in the Catskill Mountains in 1964. They look sophisticated, fun loving, and reminiscent of Baby’s parents, Dr. and Mrs. Houseman, New Yorkers who visited the fictional Kellerman’s Mountain House with their daughters to relax and socialize in the summer of 1963. For their own vacation, my grandparents left their young girls (my mother and […]

Continue Reading about Dirty Dancing in the Borscht Belt Published on:
July 23, 2013

Every day should be Earth Day, of course, but once upon a time, a group of concerned citizens coordinated its very first occasion. Earth Day began on April 22, 1970, with schools across the United States hosting concurrent teach-ins to protest practices polluting natural resources. It’s apropos, then, that my lifelong respect for the environment grew out of my own classroom experiences. And I’m pleased that my job affords me the pleasure of recognizing educational toys that promote environmental stewardship.
 The […]

Continue Reading about Young and Green: My Early Environmental Education Published on:
April 17, 2013

Though Bond girls and seductive villainesses have been the most memorable women of the spy genre since Dr. No premiered to American audiences in 1963, not all ladies have found themselves relegated to supporting roles. Surely female characters engaged in espionage have James Bond to thank for sparking the 1960s spy trend and the fantastic toys it generated. But women’s greater contribution to the field is too sensational to keep undercover.
Smartly dressed, sharp-witted, and armed with clever gadgets hidden in […]

Continue Reading about West. Honey West: Female Spies in Television and Toys Published on:
April 2, 2013

Few things beat a good party game for putting people at ease—be they best friends or acquaintances at best. I attended a baby shower whose host displayed a platter of adorable infant-related items and instructed us to commit them to memory. After Jackie and her tray left the room, her mother-in-law distributed pencils and paper. However, instead of asking us to list the contents of the tray—which I’d been repeating under my breath—she asked us, “What was Jackie wearing?” Oops. […]

Continue Reading about Game for a Party Published on:
February 5, 2013

Make-believe makes a big difference. Children’s pretend play equips them for real life, write Julie A. Fiorelli and Sandra W. Russ in their 2012 article for the American Journal of Play. Fantasy play is essential to children’s health and welfare, affirms Vivian Gussin Paley in another Journal issue. Traveling through time and space, assuming imaginary identities, transforming real objects into dramatic props, and developing rules to govern these activities is not just a frivolous pastime. And kids will do it […]

Continue Reading about Free Play among the Furniture Published on:
December 11, 2012