TOYS & GAMES OF YESTERYEAR - PART 2 By Cheri Kay Clifton

Continuing from last month’s blog, I’ve added a few more toys and games to the list that entertained children in 19^th century America.

As stated before, the early immigrants brought their toys and games to America from many countries. The rules and ways of playing them were handed down from generation to generation and many of them are still enjoyed by children today. 

The history of rocking horses can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when a popular children’s toy was the hobby horse – a fake horse’s head attached to a long stick. Children would place the stick between their legs and “ride” the horse around. These toys can still be found today.

The hobby horse was replaced in the 16th century by the barrel horse, which consisted of a circular log supported by four legs and adorned with a fake horse head. Crude in nature, this toy mimicked the back of a horse better than a hobby horse.

The rocking horse in its current form is widely believed to have first appeared in the early 17th century. It was around this time that bow rockers were invented, introducing rocking to the world of toy horses. There were, however, improvements to be made to the first rocking horses. Being made from solid wood, they were heavy and their center of gravity was high, so they could easily topple over.

It was in the Victorian age that the ‘safety stand’ was introduced and the idea of making the horses hollow was conceived. This made the horses lighter and more stable, and gave birth to the idea of a secret compartment being fitted into the horse’s underbelly.

The family heirloom horse could store photographs, mint coins, locks of baby hair and other such trinkets for future generations to find. During this era, the style of choice was the dappled grey rocking horse, which was a favorite of Queen Victoria. Her love of rocking horses was instrumental in increasing the popularity of the toys.

During the 19^th century, the popular wooden toy horses evolved from a cottage industry into a factory production. Today, antique wooden rocking horses have become collectors' items while new artists have emerged with their own design to make the collectors' items of the future. There is a great range of designs and styles available and horses are made in a wide variety of materials from cloth to plastic and with a wide range of prices.

Paper Dolls have existed as long as there have been paper and creative people to apply images to it. Examples of the first true paper dolls have been found in fashion centers of Vienna, Berlin, London and Paris from as early as the mid-1700’s.

McLoughlin Brothers, founded in 1828, became the largest manufacturer of paper dolls in the United States. They printed their paper dolls from wood blocks engraved in the same way as metal plates. The largest producer of paper dolls and children’s books, McLoughlin Brothers was sold to Milton Bradley in 1920.

A smaller publishing company, Peter G. Thompson, published paper dolls in the 1880’s and sold for eight to fifteen cents per set. Also in the 1880’s, Dennison Manufacturing Co. added crepe paper to their line, starting a trend that lasted for about forty years. Crepe paper added dimension to the costumes of paper dolls and provided countless hours of fun for children at home and in schools. In the 1890’s Frederick Stokes and Co. published sets of paper dolls with likenesses of European royalty and America’s Martha Washington.

In November 1859, Godey’s Lady Book was the first known magazine to print a paper doll in black and white followed by a page of costumes for children to cut out. This was the only paper doll Godey’s ever published, but it set the trend that many women’s magazines followed in years to come. The 1900’s saw an explosion of paper dolls in many lady’s and children’s magazines.

Paper dolls were most popular during the era of the 1930’s through the 50’s. During the Great Depression, paper toys could be afforded by all. Despite the product shortages of World War II, paper dolls were still manufactured. Children in the 1950’s spent many an hour playing with their favorite paper dolls, just as their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers had before them.

How to jump rope was a selection in a book published in 1833 by Lydia Maria Child, titled The Girls Own Book. Why did girls in early 19^th century America need instructions on how to jump rope? Up until then jumping rope had been considered a game only suitable for boys. 

By the early 19^th century, the new gendered ideology promoted passiveness and domesticity that limited girls’ play. Yet the recommendations of antebellum child-rearing advisors suggest that many believed active play was good for girls. Along with Child, other experts predicted that open-air exercise would improve girls’ dexterity, diligence and strengthen their bodies, also rid them of debilitating medical conditions.

Girls’ new freedom of movement had been made possible by changes in clothing fashions as well. Their shorter dresses (frocks) enabled them to skate, sled, run and romp. Yet it was the introduction of pantalettes or pantaloons (loose pants worn under dresses) that enabled girls to make the game of jumping rope their own.

Jumping rope is traditionally a girls’ activity in which two players turn a rope (holding it by its end and swinging it in a circle) and the other players take turns jumping it while chanting a rhyme or counting. When it is played as a game, each player is required to move in while the rope is turning, complete the jump, and move out without contacting or stopping the rope; the jumps required usually become more complicated as the game proceeds. There are many types of jumps, including single, double, backward, and two at a time jumpers, even double Dutch with two ropes turned simultaneously in opposite directions.

 The first recorded pair of roller skates were used for a theatrical performance in London in 1743, unfortunately the inventor’s name has been lost to history, but the idea soon caught on and by 1819 M. Petitbled patented the first roller skates in France. These early skates were the predecessors to the inline skates we use today, although it would have been hard to do more than skate in a straight line.

By 1863 the four-wheeled skate (or quad skate) with an added rubber piece to allow skaters to curve when they moved was developed in New York City and it was such a hit that the first roller rink was opened in the city shortly thereafter. Over the rest of the century the design of the roller skate was fine-tuned with the addition of things like toe stops, making it easier and more enjoyable for people to roller skate. By the end of the 1800s roller skates were being mass produced in the U.S.

Besides the more common outdoor games of hide & seek, leapfrog and tag, board games such as tic-tac-toe, checkers and chess, other popular games of the 19^th century were:

Battledore & Shuttlecock, an outdoor game played since the earliest American settlements, the forerunner to both modern badminton and table tennis.

Graces, brought to America by the French, also known as Flying Circle and French Hoops, most popular during the Victorian Period, particularly with young ladies and used for exercise and to teach gracefulness.

Tiddlywinks, a table game quite popular in the 1890’s, played by adults and children alike, in which players used a larger disk to flip smaller disks called winks into a cup.

Typical with researching historical topics, there’s no end to the fascination of reading about the games and toys of our ancestors. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading and yes, reminiscing about some of these toys and games we may have enjoyed playing ourselves…and maybe, still do!

CHILDHOOD TOYS OF YESTERYEAR

Our historical books include not only our heroes and heroines, but often children as secondary characters. A story I’m working on now has young children and thus, my interest in researching what toys and games would occupy their playtime. I should add that “playtime” is a key word. Children in 19^th century America didn’t have much time for play, responsibilities and chores taking up a major part of their day, far more than our youngsters of today.

The early immigrants brought their toys and games to America from England, Africa, Germany, France and many other countries. The rules and ways of playing with them were handed down from generation to generation and many of them are still enjoyed by children today.  That is, when we can get them away from the TV and computers and put down their Xboxes and cell phones! LOL

Listed are a sample of the popular toys and games across the ages. Next month I’ll continue with more favorite pastimes early American children enjoyed.

Tops were a favorite spinning toy throughout history. Primitive twirly tops have been found from as far back 2000 BC. Many of the early American tops were handcrafted, the peg top once being the most popular toy in America. The toy was set in motion by wrapping a string around it; tossing it away and into the air; then watch it land spinning on to the floor.

Cup and Ball toy was an excellent test of hand-eye coordination. This folk toy originated in ancient Greece and early India. Fashionable by the late 16^th century, it was one of the earliest toys played by American children. The ball is tossed and caught in a cup on the end of a stick. In the more difficult bilbo catcher variation, the ball can also be caught on the tip of the opposite side of the spindle by a hole drilled in the ball.

Rolling Hoop was a pastime the American colonists brought with them from Europe. In the 19^th century, both wood and metal hoops were favorite playthings. The hoops were rolled along in solitary play or raced by any number of players.

Wooden blocks were a common 19^th century toy. Using their imagination, children created bridges, houses, forts and castles. Blocks during that time period were played by both boys and girls. While some of the manufactured, more expensive blocks were stamped with pictures or the letters of the alphabet, most blocks were homemade from scraps of wood and quite plain.

Dominoes is a game that can be traced back to China in 1120 AD. Domino sets are commonly made up of double six (28 tiles) and double nine (55 tiles). There are many variations of games that can be played with dominoes.

Dice Games are as old as ancient Egypt. Dice as we know them today were used in backgammon, reportedly one of the oldest games in recorded history. Dicing games such as Hazard were 18^th century tavern favorites in the colonies and the forerunner of today’s most popular casino dice games. Dice were a common household item in early America, made of wood, bone and ivory.

Marbles have been played in all parts of the world for more than 2000 years. Children in 18^th century America played with marbles made of stone or clay; glass marbles were highly prized in the 19^th century. Mass production became possible in 1884, when Sam Dyke of Akron, Ohio, created a wooden block with six grooves, each of which held a lump of clay. An operator would roll a wooden paddle over all the clay balls at once, with a back-and-forth and slightly lateral motion, creating six marbles. With around 350 employees, Dyke's factory was cranking out five train carloads, or about one million marbles, every day. Mass production made marbles much cheaper to make, allowing the price to drop from about one penny each to a bag of 30 marbles for the same price. Other businessmen jumped on the bandwagon and Akron soon became the marble capital of late-19th century America. Some of the first U.S.-produced glass marbles were also made in Akron, by James Harvey Leighton. The basic game of marbles is played in a ring drawn in the dirt. Each player then tries to knock the marbles out of this circle with his ‘shooter’ marble, also called a ‘knuckler.’ A big bag of marbles was considered a treasure.

Jacks is a centuries old game and was once played with seeds, bones, stones or other such materials. Originally named “knucklebones” after the bone of sheeps’ ankle, they were thrown up and caught in various manners. When the game became popular in America, children used a wooden or rubber ball and objects made of six-pronged metal or wood objects, called jack-stones, or jacks. (It was always one of my favorite childhood games, fondly remembering scattering the jacks loosely into the play area, then taking turns bouncing the ball and picking up the jacks before the ball bounced a second time. Some of you may recall the names, “onesies,” “twosies,” and so on, as well as the variations of the game with names such as “horse before carriage,” and “eggs in the basket.”)

Checkers originated in France around 1000 AD. The game made its way to England and called ‘draughts,’ then to America, where it became known as ‘checkers.’ The game steadily rose in popularity as the years went by. 1847 was an important year in the history of checkers when the first championship award was given.

Hopscotch diagrams still cover sidewalks today, but it is one of the oldest and most popular children’s games of all times. There is still a hopscotch pattern etched into the floor of the Roman Forum from several centuries ago! Traditional American hopscotch dates back to the 1800’s.

Yo-Yo has been popular since the ancient times of the Romans and Greeks. However, it didn’t become well-known in the U.S. until the middle of the 1800’s. People began to create yo-yos of all types and from different materials. It wasn’t until Duncan introduced their version of the yo-yo in the 1920’s that the yo-yo became widely popular.

Pick up Sticks was believed to be originated by Native Americans. They used straws of wheat and then passed the game on to English settlers. The English settlers passed it from generation to generation and wheat sticks eventually became thin pieces of wood of different colors. The count of sticks used in the game were 25. Like many childhood games, this one a great one for learning hand and eye coordination. Today Pick up Sticks still remains popular for all ages.

Dolls have been a part of little girls’ lives since ancient times. Girls often had their first sewing experiences creating dresses, hats, and quilts for them. Some of the earliest were carved of wood and dressed in scraps of cloth.

The most common dolls throughout the 19th century were homemade cloth dolls. These were often made from scraps of fabric, with embroidered or button eyes. They might have been stuffed with feathers, cotton, or even straw. Manufactured dolls might be stuffed with sawdust as well.

In rural areas, people fashioned dolls out of the materials at hand. Some carved dolls from pieces of wood or sewed rag dolls from cloth or deerskin. Doll heads were sometimes made from dried apples. "Apple dolls" resembled very old, wrinkled people. Even cornhusks could be bent and tied to make a doll.

Toy makers created a variety of dolls in the 1800s. Most looked like adults. Dolls that resembled babies were not made until the late 1800s. Most dolls had wooden bodies. Many had joints at the elbows, hips, and knees so that children could bend their arms and legs. Doll heads were made of wood, papier-mâché, wax, or china. Dolls with wax heads cost the most. They had glass eyes and natural-looking hair. Some even had real human hair.

Some dolls were quite fancy with ribbons, ruffles, and lace. Sometimes a doll was so beautifully dressed that its owner was only allowed to play with it on Sunday, and then only with clean hands. Some dolls were not to be touched by children at all.

  

These are but a few of the all-time favorite toys and games of children of yesteryear … and I’m sure have stirred memories of the child that still resides in all of us.

Please visit my website at www.cherikayclifton.com and check out my historical western novels also on Amazon