A Playful Past

 by Barry Owens

Well before the Cabbage Patch Kid, the Barbie doll, or even Raggedy Anne, there was the wax-faced contraption now on display at the South Street Seaport Museum.

Toys of the 19th and early 20th century often were instructional. A toy dry-goods store from the end of the 19th century came with instructions on how to stock and maintain a successful shop. Photo: Carl Glassman

Kids in the 1870s could wind up this baby doll and watch as she scooted awkwardly across the room on robot-like legs. Parents of the era may not have shuddered at the sight of the doll moving on the parlor floor, but by today's toy standards, the "Crawling Baby" is more than a bit creepy.


The doll is only one of the rarities to be found in "Child's Play at the Seaport," a collection of old-time toys manufactured in the 19th and early 20th centuries on view at the museum through December.

There are, of course, the expected assortment of trains, boats and erector-set skyscrapers, but there are also curious board games and educational toys.

"Wit, Wisdom and Wonder!" promises the copy on the box of one 19th century puzzle game. "It asks and answers the most difficult questions!"


"Of what use are a cat's whiskers?" The game asks on one card inside. The answer is found after a not uncomplicated deciphering of the game's patented code. "By them he tells if his body will go through the hole."

One of the earliest toys in the collection is this sand box from 1850. Children could scoop sand into the hopper and watch as the youngster in short pants happily turned the crank. Photo: Carl Glassman
Airplanes, zeppelins and steam ships were popular toys of the era. Photo: Carl Glassman

"They are beautiful as objects," Richard Stepler, the museum's director of publications, said of the toys. "But I think the best are probably those that have obviously been played with and then put away in the attic."

Among the well-used toys are a cast-iron squirt gun, a battleship with wooden cannons and paper-doll sailors on deck, and a fire engine with a red roof rubbed long ago to the tin by the palm of a child's hand.

Oganized by the Doll and Toy Museum of New York and the South Street Seaport Museum, the exhibit has pieces from the museums' collections and the private toy chests of four collectors. From tin soldiers to keystone cops to a collection of firefighters battling a toy tenement blaze, more than 200 items are featured-not counting the dozens of elaborately detailed pieces in a well-appointed Victorian doll house that mirrored the most fashionable homes of the day.

The "Sandy Andy" ferry boat, part of an exhibit of transportation toys. It has a companion piece, the "Sunny Andy" trolley car. Photo: Carl Glassman
This crawling baby came with a key. Wind her up and watch her go. Photo: Carl Glassman

With New York City once the toy manufacturing capital of the world, it's not surprising that the show has a decidedly New York feel. There are carousels and Ferris wheels inspired by Coney Island, toy models of the Brooklyn and George Washington Bridges and a build-your-own-cardboard version of the Empire State Building.

The models of working waterfronts, complete with barrels, longshoremen and tiny cartons marked "Blasting Caps," also provide a glimpse of life at the dawn of the industrial age-and reflect what the children of the day found fanciful.

There are no monsters, superheroes or silly creatures in the collection to conjure a fantasy world.

For these children, said Stepler, "things from the real world-tall buildings, steamships, battleships-seemed fantastic enough."

"Child's Play at the Seaport" at South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St., 212-748-8600 through Dec. $8; seniors/ students $6, under 5 free. Fri-Sun 10-5.