Museum London is taking visitors on a trip through time with its latest exhibition.
Emphatically entitled – ‘Play Time,’ – Museum London’s latest display tackles a central theme of work and play.
Play Time boasts a collection of old toys and games that range in age, from roughly 20 years old – to well over a century. Early toboggans, tricycles, dolls, jack in the boxes, and very old lacrosse stick are just a few of the ancient toys on display.
Amber Lloydlangston is Museum London’s curator of regional history and she described what she sees to be the exhibition’s main purpose.
“I wanted people to understand that we all play,” she said, “so we have all had toys of one shape or another – all of us, whether they were few, many, homemade, or store bought – whatever the case, we’ve all had toys.”
Lloydlangston feels what makes this particular exhibition so special – is that it connects us to our childhood, and reminds us of what the human experience is like in a simpler time.
“I’ve heard any number of people say: ‘oh, do you remember? you had something like that!'” she exclaimed.
“I’ve even watched our tour guides show children the show, and one even asks them – ‘what would you pick if you could have something?’ And that makes them feel special.”
Lloydlangston also points it out that one of the goals of the exhibition is to highlight how gender roles have been stressed through toys.
She says there was one artifact in particular that stuck out like a sore-sexist-thumb.
“For me, something that made me laugh but then made me sigh a little bit,” she said, “we have a 1950’s era, toy typewriter, and it’s the graphic on the box that really got me, because it shows a little girl typing – as a little boy is dictating her.”
Despite the way toys have evolved, Lloydlangston still feels as though the toys we grow up loving, have a significant impact on the adults we grow up to be.
“I think people, young and old can really identify with toys.”
