the Henry Ford (Museum)

Sunday, October 14, 2024

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10° C / 50° F

the Henry Ford (Museum)

Part I

"From the Collections of Henry Ford"

Toy Blocks

There are often times when I find an unexpected website that simply astonishes me. And so it was, when I discovered "the Henry Ford" museum. Finding the museum was great, but finding the toy section was even greater. I had initially done a search for toys, and one the search results on my search engine (Google) was "the Henry Ford" (Museum). 

I had written to the Henry Ford Museum, and had received a fantastic letter from one of the archivists of the Archives and Library Staff (Benson Ford Research Center of The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan, USA. She also gave me permission to use photos and to write about this great resource.

There is a lot of information when you go to the main website. So what I have done is provide the link directly to the toy section below:

Please click here to redirect to the Henry Ford Museum on toys

The link below will take you directly to today's specific blog post about toy blocks

Please click here to visit the specific location of today's post

Below:

The Picture Alphabet For Good Children, 1835-1855

I've written short paragraphs on all of the toys below. However, I would highly recommend to visit the website directly.  The professional staff at The Henry Ford museum are very eloquent and  learned in writing descriptions of the numerous toys that the museum has.

Below

The Picture Alphabet for Good Children

1835-1855

The items below are cards that were kept in a portable wooden cylinder. Most of the cards had large letters on one side, and a printed image that had the same letter in its' identity.

The set was meant for children to learn their alphabet from the pictures.

Below

Picture Puzzle Blocks

1858-1863

The set of blocks below was more advanced. Because the blocks were 6-sided,  this offered young children different learning skills.Not only would the children be able to assemble a small picture of  of a scene, but it also helped them to learn the English alphabet as well. 

Below:

Alphabet Blocks 

1865-1875

The S.L. Hill Company patented the toy set below in 1858, which was described

as " a new and Improved Spelling-Block", with images attached to the blocks.

These toys were very ingenious for the time.  These toys great for having children 

improve their dexterity (Skill in using your hands to perform different tasks).

But even better, was that these toys could be played with in an educational manner.

Below

Hill's Spelling Blocks, 1867-1880

This is another educational toy set from the The S.L. Hill company became very successful for manufacturing these toys for the fast-growing population

 of the United States.

Below:

Hill's Kindergarten Building and Spelling Blocks

1880-1890

Here, once again is a great set of learning tiles and cubes.

However, in this case, the blocks have upper case (Capitals) 

and lower-case (small letters) in cursive (curved and styled) 

and not in  block lettering. From this,children could learn how to read.

But the Hill's company went even further. 

Their blocks also had Roman and Arabic numerals (numbers)

for children to learn how to count. 

Below:

Alphabet Blocks, Used by Edsel Ford, 1895-1900

For those who don't know, Mr. Edsel Ford  

was the son of Mr. Henry Ford and  his wife Clara Jane Bryant Ford. 

Mr. Henry  Ford created the Ford Motor Company.

Below:

Alphies Alphabet

These blocks not only appealed to children, but adults as well.

The toys stood up, and came with a rubber ball. Children would arrange the aninals standing up, and would roll the ball to knock the pins down, just like bowling.

 Not only could children play with the pins and ball, but they learned the alphabet as well.

I learned a lot writing this blog post. However, there is so much to learn from the museums that Mr. Henry Ford created. This is the first post, and I plan to write another post about this library, for readers to research more information about toys of the museum.

Sometimes, when you research for a blog post, you never know what you'll find.

And so to finish this blog post, I have to quote you that famous sentence from a movie.

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get".

The movie is Forrest Gump (1994) starring Tom Hanks, and directed by Robert Zemeckis.

The book that the movie was created from was written by Winston Groom, and was released in  the 1986.