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 […]
Search by Category
Committed To Memory: The Glynn Family Scrapbook, Part 2
When we last left off, I was twenty pages deep into the expansive Glynn family scrapbook. During my brief pause, my curiosity about the family and their memories grew. I turned to The Strong’s online archive—formally known as the Brian Sutton-Smith Library & Archives of Play—to bolster my previous “investigation.”
Through my research, I learned that, despite my initial assumptions, Maxine and Alfred were a childless couple. According to the National Library of Medicine, a third of couples during the 1930s […]
Continue Reading about Committed To Memory: The Glynn Family Scrapbook, Part 2
Nintendo’s Forgotten Accessibility Pioneer: The 1989 Handsfree Controller
By: Hana Hanifah, 2025 Valentine-Cosman Research Fellow
In recent years, the momentum for accessibility in games has gained significant traction. Many custom configurations, such as captions, remappable controls, and adaptable hardware, are becoming the norm as more people, especially those with disabilities, play and engage in games. The Xbox Adaptive Controller and the PS5’s Access Controller have been rightly praised and documented in the mainstream media. However, several decades before they emerged, there was an innovation that quietly went to the […]
Continue Reading about Nintendo’s Forgotten Accessibility Pioneer: The 1989 Handsfree Controller
Cats, Cards, and Calamity!
Cats have been beloved members of our families for centuries. Their curious and often silly nature makes them the subject of many works of art, sources of humor, and entertainment. The Strong was recently gifted a delightful collection of 74 “Mainzer Dressed Cat” postcards, which feature brightly colored scenes of anthropomorphic cats dressed in human clothing and engaging in a variety of humorous activities, in situations that often threaten an impending calamity.
This collection of cards was designed by Swiss painter […]
Stacks & Steps: Growing with Interns, One Box at a Time
Being an Archivist is literally my dream job but one thing I did not expect was how satisfying it is to work with interns. You get to watch as they build confidence day by day in the decisions they make, hear them laugh as they find something unexpected or funny, listen to the yawns while they’re slogging through the “boring” tasks (removing staples from hundreds of pages can get repetitive), and best of all, see that spark ignite into “YES! […]
Continue Reading about Stacks & Steps: Growing with Interns, One Box at a Time
Children’s Literature in The Strong’s Collections
Where can one find a good children’s book in The Strong Museum? The answer is almost everywhere in the museum’s two separate libraries—the Grada Hopeman Gelser mini-branch that is part of the Monroe County Library System (MCLS) and the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play. Both libraries are full of old and new children’s books. Why might that be? Well, children’s literature is a way of learning through the playfulness of storytelling, a major avenue of artistic expression, interacting […]
Continue Reading about Children’s Literature in The Strong’s Collections
Exporting the Dreamhouse: Barbie in South America
By: Eva Maria Rey Pinto, 2025 Valentine-Cosman Research Fellow
Ever wonder how America’s sweetheart snuck into every corner of the Americas? In 1974, Mattel’s founders, Ruth and Elliot Handler, resigned after financial scandals and IRS investigations. This sparked a crisis lasting through the 1980s. New leadership pivoted by licensing Barbie to global toy companies, reducing production costs while maintaining profits through local production and distribution, preserving the brand’s success. Given its geographic proximity, the Latin American market held strategic interest for […]
Continue Reading about Exporting the Dreamhouse: Barbie in South America
The $25,000 Pyramid Game Show “Bible”
By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History
When the production staff of a game show needs some guidance about what to do, they turn to the bible.
Among many papers recently donated to the National Archives of Game Show History is the bible for The $25,000 Pyramid, as aired on CBS from 1982-88. Not to sound irreverent, but somehow, “bible” is the industry accepted name for an important document that television viewers never see or hear about. […]
Continue Reading about The $25,000 Pyramid Game Show “Bible”
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 […]
