During the 1890's to the 1920's many children played with toys that are both similar and different than the toys that children play with today. Here is a sampling of toys that were widely played with during this time period. On Sundays parents only permitted their children to play with biblical toys such as the circa 1800’s German hand carved Noah’s Ark play set shown above, it was complete with little wooden animals.
Little girls have always loved playing with dolls, in fact the earliest dolls were constructed from wood, ivory, corn husks, rags, bone, and animal hide etc. Girls also loved to make paper dolls using crayons. Dolls were objects of affection and were much loved companions. They also held great aspirations for the future as women typically back in these days were stay at home mothers and the little girls would role play with their baby dolls. Little girls also loved to play house and used little miniature sets of dishes to have tea parties and to mimic grown ups.
Children have been playing with marbles since the Roman days. Marbles can be constructed out of glass, clay, steel or rock. In the 1800’s and the 1900’s marbles were very popular and children played a variety of games with their marbles. Blocks were a wonderful way for children to build a wide variety of buildings, blocks also came with designs, numbers and letters drawn on them so that children could learn how to spell their names and count etc. Spinning tops were also widely used by children during this time period and they were used for a number of fun games. Children found it great fun to have contests to see who could spin their top the longest.
Little boys in particular got a lot of pleasure out of playing with and constructing their own creations by using Lincoln logs, erector sets and tinker toys. These toys offered hours of educational play.
Baseball cards began to appear in boxes of cigarettes in the 1800’s and became a fun collectible that children would trade back and forth. Many hours would be enjoyed looking at stacks of cards.
The first electric train was called the Lionel train and was invented in 1901. Originally it was made to be housed in a store front window as a display, however people loved this train and the toy train was born. As you can see the best toys have stood the test of time and children still enjoy playing with blocks, trains, dolls, crayons, tea sets, lincoln logs, marbles, erector sets and tinker toys today.