Other Useful Resources for Teachers:
Other print and online resources related to historic toys and games.


Online Resources:

History Channel's History of Toys & Games:
For more information about the history of toys and games, including a timeline, see the History Channel's web site.

Sampler of Early Children's Games, Old Sturbridge Village: In their "Sampler of Early Children's Games," Old Sturbridge Village provides instructions for a variety of games played by children in the past.


Print Resources:

Calvert, Karin.  Children in the House: The Material Culture of Early Childhood, 1600-1900.  Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1992.
Describes changes in children's furniture and other childhood objects, shedding new light on the history of American childhood before 1900.

Cross, Gary.  Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1997.
The best overall work on this subject.  Looks at the meaning of American toys as they have reflected our changing world and values since the late 1800s.

Forman-Brunell, Miriam, ed.  Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia.  Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001.
Two-volume reference book includes 120 entries examining various aspects of American girlhood over the past 400 years. This groundbreaking work considers the experiences of a diverse population of American girls of different races and ethnic groups, social classes, religions, and geographic regions. Provides great historical summaries and fresh observations on traditional subjects like dolls, education, and clothing, as well as issues of contemporary focus like body image, mathematics and science, and teen pregnancy.

Formanek-Brunell, Miriam.  Made to Play House: Dolls and the Commercialization of American Girlhood, 1830-1930.  New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1993.
An important work on the history of the doll industry and on how doll play has changed over time. Great blending of primary sources, material culture, gender studies, and social history.

Grover, Kathryn, ed.  Hard at Play: Leisure in America, 1840-1940.  Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992.
Andrew Gulliford's essay, "Fox and Geese in the School Yard: Play and America's Country Schools, 1870-1940," explores the character of free play among children during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Includes traditional games of immigrant children and the role of schoolyard play in assimilating immigrant children. Bernard Mergen's essay, "Children's Play in American Autobiographies, 1820-1914," looks at 78 autobiographies to make some tentative generalizations about the nature and meaning of children's play in the 19th century. A unique use of this kind of documentary source for the study of children's play.

Resources not in Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village's Collections:

Kids! 200 Years of Childhood.  Winterthur, DE: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1999.
This concise, easy-to-read catalog (the companion to an exhibition of the same name), looks at the changing meanings of childhood in the 1700s and 1800s, especially through objects of daily life. Contains 8 activity pages.

Larkin, Jack.  Children Everywhere: Dimensions of Childhood in Early 19th Century New England.  Sturbridge, MA: Old Sturbridge Village Booklet Series, 1987.
Very readable and richly illustrated. See especially the section on "Play," pp. 22-25.