What’s the Big Deal About Fast Food Toys?
As an oldest child with a busy lifestyle, a calendar full of homework, dance classes, theatre rehearsals, voice lessons, Girl Scouts, choir, and sometimes Model UN or Math League, convenience and time efficiency were key in my childhood. My 25-minute commute to dance made me a frequent flyer at the McDonald’s that allowed me sufficient time to finish my food before we reached the studio. My meal of choice never wavered: a hamburger […]
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Women’s History Month: Celebrating Five Women in Toys and Dolls
The Education Task Force of Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women held a “Women’s History Week” celebration to correspond with International Women’s Day in 1978. The movement spread and, in 1987, Congress passed Public Law 100-9, which designated March as Women’s National History Month. Despite these initiatives, I have no memory of special celebrations or lessons on women’s contributions to history while growing up in public schools in the 1980s and 1990s. In a note to her readers, […]
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Problems with Plastic Toys
By: Alexander Parry, 2025 Strong Research Fellow
In December 2021, TIME journalist Emily Barone published an editorial about the conflict between her and her children over plastic toys. Barone explained her misgivings about the sea of “eco-terrible plastic junk” available to kids and wondered how to reconcile her environmentalism with the shelf appeal of colorful, heavily-advertised, and often battery-powered toys. These cheap and flimsy items, Barone observed, were nearly impossible to recycle, contributing to air and water pollution and to the […]
Green with Envy
What are your thoughts about amphibians? Maybe that segment of the animal world hasn’t crossed your mind recently, but I’ve been noticing a surprising number of frogs around The Strong museum’s collection. Frogs have been cropping up in children’s stories for centuries now, from “The Frog Prince,” a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 to more recent books, such as Arnold Lobel’s story Frog and Toad Are Friends (1970), which offers readers a couple […]
Slime Oozes into the National Toy Hall of Fame
I experience many emotions when my young kids ask to make slime. I usually greet their requests with enthusiasm before quickly dissolving into panic as I watch the glue, shaving cream, glitter, and bingsu beads stick to various surfaces around the room. Slime is an extension of an established chemical process. When sodium tetraborate (borax) combines with guar gum or polymers, it turns into a gelatinous substance that can be stretched, squeezed, broken apart, and molded back together. When the […]
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Piled-up Poufs, Backcombing, and Crimping: Barbie’s Hair
With thanks to a generous museum donor, Robin H. Wyatt, I was able to join more than 850 collectors who came together at the 2025 National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention held in Louisville, Kentucky. The theme for the event was ICON Barbie: A Fashion Original. While at the convention, I presented on The Strong’s Barbie collection. My presentation highlighted Barbie dolls from the 1960s through the 1990s who reflect the criteria of National Toy Hall of Fame inductees: icon-status, longevity, […]
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Dollhouses Unveiled: An Exhibit Celebrating Dollhouses and Miniatures
Once adult playthings, dollhouses originally showcased finely crafted furnishings made of exotic materials and served as symbols of wealth. But miniatures fascinated children as much as adults, and toymakers began producing variations of these houses for kids to enjoy. And dollhouses remain a favorite plaything today, as well as an inductee to the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Margaret Woodbury Strong, the museum’s founder, was an avid collector of dollhouses. A ticket from 1958 invited guests to the “First Public Showing […]
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Don’t Play with Your Food!
Across time, it feels like “Don’t play with your food!” has been a persistent parental refrain. However, the need to keep reciting that dictum demonstrates that kids (and at least a few adults) perpetually find ways to turn mealtime into playtime. Some research has even suggested that playing with food can help babies and toddlers develop healthy eating habits. No wonder that, over the years, manufacturers have found ways to take that playful inclination and turn it into products that […]
Chores Are More Fun When They’re Fake
As I begin a new decade of my life, I’ve become more aware of the toys that model real-world “adulting.” Pretend play is a childhood staple, and often it involves kids performing what they see adults do. I’ve also realized, with a bit of my now developed adult cynicism, that it was a lot more fun to pretend to be an adult. The real thing doesn’t always measure up.
Take chores for example. Sweeping up with a fake broom or running […]
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