Childish Things

A collection of objects that illuminate aspects of childhood and youth. Get in touch to contribute another childish thing to our growing online exhibit.

A Good Reader!

Reading has been considered a central part of children’s developmental process for a long time now. From selected moral texts aimed at

Student Rest Homes

Located in the shadow of Mont Blanc in southeastern France, the Chalet international des étudiants, International Student Chalet, became the world’s first

The World’s Oldest Toy?

Is it possible to identify the oldest surviving toy? Archaeologist Jane Eva Baxter considers some of the candidates.

Tudor Nursery Rhymes

Children are the great unknown of history, until the last couple of centuries. Very little survives about what they did each day,

Roman Baby Bottles

These ancient pottery vessels, retaining traces of milk, provide a tangible link to parents in the past.

Amy’s Questionnaires

A Milwaukee teenager's 1916 questionnaires made her into an amateur sociologist of 20th-century girlhood