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Imagine that it’s January 1896. To your dismay, you find yourself stuck at your aunt’s house one particularly dreary winter day with absolutely nothing to do.
Your aunt’s parlor is cold, with the wind whistling in through the single-pane windows and the wood fire barely taking an edge off the chill. Even worse, there’s nothing to entertain you. You don’t play the piano and radio, television, and the Internet don’t exist—there’s not even a cat to play with. Your aunt fetches […]

Continue Reading about Playing with Living Pictures: Clockwork Tableaux Published on:
April 19, 2011

Over the past few weeks, the America at Play: Play Stories Video Contest has received dozens of fun and creative videos that illustrate the way Americans play, now and in years past. Browsing through all of them takes some time, so I wanted to share a few of my personal favorites and guide you to the ones that I think shouldn’t be missed. 
Bicycle Tag
Though it was the first submission to the contest, this video remains one of my favorites. This […]

Continue Reading about Top Video Picks Published on:
April 11, 2011

In 2010, The Strong received a sizable and generous donation from Prima Games, one of the leading strategy guide publishers in the electronic games industry. The gift consisted of more than a thousand strategy guides for both PC and console video games from 1990 to 2009. Following an eight-month cataloging project, all 1,264 game guides can now be found in the Brian Sutton-Smith Library & Archives of Play’s online catalog.
Having immersed myself in Prima’s strategy guides for the better part […]

Continue Reading about A Librarian’s Top 5 Video Game Strategy Guides Published on:
April 5, 2011

My recent TV line-up includes Bored to Death and Pushing Daisies. And I just read Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon. The detectives in all call to mind a list of favorite video game sleuths:
 1. Nancy Drew, amateur sleuth from the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
Who doesn’t find appealing a self-reliant girl solving mysteries in style? Her Interactive recently announced its first storybook app, Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch. Megan Gaiser, President and CEO of the company, said “we wanted this series […]

Continue Reading about Cracking the Case in Video Games Published on:
April 5, 2011

When you reminisce and think of your brightest, fondest memories of childhood play, what comes to mind? You might recall hours in front of a Monopoly board or days spent crafting intricate models made from LEGO bricks, but are those truly your most treasured memories? Or is it the recollection of rowdy games of freeze tag in the front yard or wrestling with your little brother in a makeshift ring that you hold closest to your heart?
Perusing the submissions for […]

Continue Reading about Outside the Box: What We Remember About Play Published on:
March 31, 2011

Last fall, The Strong’s National Museum of Play began to look anew at some of the dolls, games, toys, and other playthings originally catalogued and photographed more than 30 years ago. Since that time, historians and collectors have added to the museum staff’s knowledge of how these toys were made, marketed, and played with. Studying these playthings again lets curators apply the latest research and become reacquainted with some of the wonders of the collections.
In working on this project, I […]

Continue Reading about Charles M. Crandall Toys—Vintage Playthings, Modern Play Published on:
March 29, 2011

More video games exist than can be played in a lifetime, so every gamer has to choose what is most enjoyable to play. The big question is how to make this decision. Here are some of the things I consider when selecting what games to play, and I hope you might find them helpful, too.
 1. The Series: I’m a huge Mario fan, and chances are I will race to pick up the latest release featuring the famous plumber. Whether or […]

Continue Reading about Choosing the Right Video Game Published on:
March 25, 2011

Time can be as regular as clockwork or supple as our shifting perceptions of it. Each year I note the winter solstice and hold onto the certainty that each day afterward is growing longer, minute by minute. As the days lengthen, I inevitably succumb to the seduction of the gardening catalogs that “like clockwork” begin to arrive in my mailbox. Though the ground remains buried beneath drifts of snow, these harbingers of spring fill my thoughts with images of lush […]

Continue Reading about Imaginary Gardens Published on:
March 22, 2011

Last spring, I graduated from college and found myself, diploma in hand, thrust into an unfamiliar world. I felt disoriented without a magical meal plan that guaranteed regular feedings or the overwhelming piles of homework that occupied my time. What good would a double major in history and sociology do me now? In this new world brimming with unwanted responsibilities, I began to reflect on my experiences. I “waxed nostalgic”—a phrase that once was associated with heartsickness, suffering in the […]

Continue Reading about Nostalgia: It’s Good for You! Published on:
March 16, 2011