Existing comment:
What are your favorite toys?
This collection of games, toys, dolls, and children's furniture played with by Maryland children will hopefully remind you of some of your old favorites and introduce you to some of ours.
Early Maryland parents viewed children as miniature adults. Pre-1750 toys included books, dolls, and Noah's Ark sets, designed to teach moral values, religious stories, and gender roles.
Through the next century, parents encouraged freedom of play. Boys enjoyed ball games, stilts, and rolling hoops. Girls played with dolls, furniture, and dishes, emphasizing their domestic role.
From the mid-nineteenth century, childhood became a time of innocence and joy. Industrial advances gave more families access to store bought toys that again reflected cultural expectations -- toy soldiers, trains, and fire engines fostered manliness. Girls' toys, including miniature stoves, sewing machines, and dolls, reinforced domestic femininity.
Although every generation experiences childhood in a unique way (with electronic toys as some of the most popular today), some toys remain popular, including balls, kites, blocks, dolls, and toy soldiers -- an indication that perhaps little has changed in parents' intentions and in their eager children's interests over the past 200 years. |