Benjamin A. Gorman
To the collector, toys as antiques possess value in their construction and uniqueness. To moralists, toys illustrate corruption in society. To the psychologists, toys and play are topics in the study of human development. As a part of social history, toys are included by the historian. For us, toys can serve as touchstones to our past when childhood was filled with imagination and fantasy. As cultural objects, toys reflect the values, occupations, interests, and technologies of the society from which they came. By approaching them as artifacts and with the proper questions, we can move back in time and experience that world. Besides old toys’ serving as vehicles into the past, today’s toys are a mirror of ourselves and they can also be a bridge to understanding ourselves.
As artifacts that exist today, toys can help to bridge our understanding of the past. An examination of these objects allows us to become closer to the people who possessed them. Even in our lifetime, the viewing of an old photo taken on a long forgotten occasion, or the touching of a childhood plaything makes a special moment. In that moment, our minds reflect on the memories stirred by the object and recalls a feeling, thought, or time period when it had a central role in our lives. As personal treasures, toys represent an innocent and simple yesterday and are a bridge from our not too long ago childhood to today. And “once you pass its borders, you ne’er return again . . .” except in that corner of your memory.
If toys reproduce in microcosm the adult contemporary world, toys are us.
