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Play is typically considered to be a highly pleasurable and stress-free activity; nevertheless, there is a strong but neglected connection between toy design and the fear of a technological future. The production and promotion of technology-inspired toys for middle-class children in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reflected both the great fascination of adults with new technology and their anxiety about its impact. Different types of technical toys were meant not only as playthings, but also as tools for coming to terms with a changing social and technological milieu. For children themselves, playing with construction sets could be a source not only of pleasure, but also of frustration. This essay discusses a range of negative emotions related to construction toys and offers insights into this hitherto under-researched aspect of play. We argue that toys of a technical nature offered a small-scale and safe environment for testing out practices and mentalities related to the tensions and contradictions of modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within theories of education and human development, play constitutes a means of discovery--a way of learning. This valence of play, and its relative importance, is peculiarly associated with children and [...]

An essay is presented on a collection of technical or construction toys from the 19th through 21st centuries at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany. Particular focus is given to the boxes in which the toys were sold and contained. According to the author, the boxes present evidence about the function of the toys and the anticipated behavior of their users, as well as their social and political contexts. Topics discussed include free play, design, technology, and the acquisition of skills through play.

This essay excavates the toy magic lantern's largely overlooked significance in the late nineteenth century and explores the toy's role in cultivating children as media spectators. Domestic shows with toy lanterns allowed children to perform as curators, showmen, and audience members. This play naturalized such home entertainment as a commodifiable experience. Promotion of toy lanterns in the periodical The Youth's Companion from the 1880s to 1900s demonstrates the toy's function as an early children's home entertainment medium that has historically been overlooked in favor of analyses of the lantern as a mass medium in institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about technical toys in the early 20th century and its ingredients depicted in scientific literature. It discusses the methods for elevating toys with the help of toy catalogues. Topics include purpose of the toys, its target audience, and technology used to manufacture them. Toys such as steam engines, trains, cars and metal construction kits are defined as technical toys. It is noted that technical toys help in understanding modern technology.

The article discusses the consumption culture in early 19th century Great Britain, focusing on the prevalence of advertisements for toys and presents in the London, England newspaper, "The Morning Chronicle." Other topics of the article include the relationship between toys and Christmas in the Western world, difference in customs between social classes, and the changing meaning of the concept of a toy.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on various topics including toys and consumption culture in 19th century Great Britain, the concepts of play and leisure, and technology in the entertainment industry.

The article discusses the consumption of toys in Mexico in the 1950s, with a focus on the discourse about toys found in advertising and child care guides at that time. An overview of the economic context of Mexico is provided, including references to the import substitution policy carried out by the Mexican government during that decade. Subjects discussed include the idea of toys as a source of happiness for children, the use of war toys in the post-war period, and the role of toys in the reinforcement of gender roles.

An essay is presented on eighteenth century English publisher John Newbery, focusing on his idea of selling children's books with toys, such as balls and pincushions. It examines the ideas of philosopher John Locke concerning moral education. The author explores several of Newbery's books, including "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book" and "The Important Pocket Book, or the Valentine’s Ledger." She also comments on objectness, textuality, and didacticism.

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The article reviews the exhibition "Did Children Really Play with These?" at the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich to consider the aspects of nineteenth century childhood.

The wooden disk fell and then climbed back up a string--and people on the busy street corners in Santa Barbara, California, were transfixed. During the winter of 1927 everyone from [...]

This article describes the development of the history of toys through s survey of the literature. It shows how this history originated to different ways in France, Germany, and England, and involved contact with other disciplines such as folklore, ethnography, psychology, economic history, and sociology. The development of toy history is related to the policies and practices of the Bethnal Green Museum. Collections of toys wore displayed in the South Kensington Museum in the 1850s, but their status within the Victoria and Albert Museum remained, for many decades, uncertain. 'Would not be wanted in our department' was a characteristic response to opportunities for acquisitions. Nevertheless, from on early stage, the V & A designated the Bethnal Green Museum (BGM) as the chief site for the display of toys, and the collections gradually grew. In the early 1970s, with the transfer to BGM of the V & A's holdings of children's clothes and furniture and the acquisition of the Renier Collection of some 80,000 children's publications, the museum became a specialist centre for the study of childhood. This status was recognized by its designation, in 1974, as the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. Yet its existence was to be called into question loss than a decade later by the Rayner Scrutiny. BGM successfully made the case against closure. And, in the following decade, changing attitudes within the V & A made the status of the childhood collections loss anomalous. More recently their particular significance as one of the largest such collections in the world has led to the redesignation of BGM as the National Museum of Childhood. The author outlines the history of the collections and their display and indicates how recent literature, together with the more inclusive intellectual approach which now obtains within the V & A, have given the BGM, though severely limited in its resources, a new sense of confidence and purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]