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.

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

Toilet Paper Tubes

As a child, I used to play with cardboard toilet roll tubes, empty breakfast cereal packets, egg boxes, and any sheet of

Argun’s Photograph Album

"This is my treasure. This is my life." The only possession that survived Argun's childhood journey from Cyprus to the UK.