You weren’t a normal child if you never played with toys.  That, or your parents hated you (sorry).  Toys are spark imagination.  Which is why so many people owned them, and so many still do.  They are objects that bring joy.  Apparently, they were popular in the early 1900s too.  

Toy gods

My toy god was Mattel.  I was a huge Barbie lover, and I secretly still am.  However, Mattel wasn’t founded until 1945.  There were several well-established businesses flourished in Britain at the start of the 20th century:  G&J Lines of London, successful since the 1870s; JK Farnell, known for manufacturing soft toys;  William Britains, known for making sets of toy soldiers; Chad Valley known for making board games; and WJ Bassett-Lowke, the firm that brought detail accuracy in model trains. 

New toy trends

Two toys emerged successfully in the early 1900s, the first new toys to be popularized since the end of the Victorian era.  These toys were the Meccano and the teddy bear. 

Engineering for boys, but what about girls?

Because of the industrial advances from the 19th century, educators realized it was important to encourage technical training in young men. In 1899, Frank Hornby designed Meccano in efforts to encourage his son to be interested in mechanical engineering.  I find it very interesting that the toy was targeted to boys.  Girls could be interested in mechanical engineering too.  Meccano’s purpose should have been to stimulate all children’s minds– not just boys.  Unfortunately,  educational toys being geared solely to boys was an ongoing trend for a long time.  

Cuddly Wuddly was a bear

Everybody I know owns a teddy bear.  Did you ever wonder where they came from?  In 1902, Richard Steiff designed the first soft toy jointed bear:  the teddy bear. 

Where did the teddy part of the name come from, you ask?  Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, was also known as Teddy.  In 1902,  President Roosevelt was out on a bear hunt in Mississippi, but he couldn’t find any bears.  His staff ended up bringing him a small cub they found to shoot, but he refused.  A Washington Post newspaper cartoonist drew a cartoon about the incident.  This cartoon bear became popular and subsequent cartoons about the President used it; therefore, it became known as “Teddy’s Bear.”

I still have my very first teddy bear.  He’s a small pink bear.  Naturally, I named him Teddy.  

Toys will always be popular for all ages.  Children love them because they can stimulate their imagination for hours, and adults love them because of the nostalgia. 

Sources

“Must Have Toys 1900-1919.” V&A Museum of Childhood, www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/must-have-toys-1900-1919/.

“Popular Toys in History: What Your Ancestors Played With.” Ancestry Blog, 3 June 2016, blogs.ancestry.com/cm/popular-toys-in-history-what-your-ancestors-played-with/.

“Remember These Must-Have Toys and Games From Christmases Past?” Farmers’ Almanac, 15 Jan. 2020, www.farmersalmanac.com/popular-christmas-toys-since-1900-25956.