Collections
From Magna Doodle, View Master, Rubik’s Cube and Chutes and Ladders to Barbie dolls and Star Wars action figures, Please Touch Museum’s Collections feature over 12,500 items—primarily toys manufactured after 1945 (due to the relevance to the current multigenerational audience of the museum)—that are an integral part of the Please Touch Museum at Memorial Hall experience. All items in the museum’s collection are a developmentally appropriate means for interpreting the history of child life. The collections are used both in exhibits throughout the gallery floor and as part of the museum’s educational programs.
The primary collection of Please Touch Museum is toys—toys guide play, engender creativity and cultivate the imagination. Toys offer children ways to develop their brain power in strategic and critical thinking…and toys help children in all the stages of play: social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language. Plus, they’re fun!
Why does Please Touch Museum collect toys?
We are a collecting institution that believes young children derive multiple benefits from object-based learning. Our collections are critically important for fulfilling our mission of enriching the lives of children. They support our efforts to serve as a first museum experience that promotes lifelong learning and cultural awareness, while reflecting and revealing history of childlife. The collection objects become learning tools to engage children’s minds and the imagination as they observe objects in exhibits.
What kind of toys does the museum collect?
The museum’s primary collection consists of cultural artifacts and supporting documentation representing the history of American childlife. Toys are the primary focus. The Contemporary Toy Collection consists of objects representing the yearly top-selling trends in the toy industry and our core organizational theme of play, regardless of age, as well as the toys’ cultural value.
Toys are collected in the following five categories:
Artistic Self Expression: Arts & Crafts, Musical
Cognitive: Games, Puzzles
Developmental: Infant and Pre-school
Personages: Dolls, Action Figures, Plush, Doll and Action Figure Accessories
Big Muscle: Ride-ons, Sports
Real World: Cars and Trucks, Construction and Building, Play Sets
Transformational: Iconic and Fad
Meanwhile, the Historical Childlife Collection documents the material culture of childhood, with objects including children’s toys and the ephemera associated with them, especially from children seven and younger or from the Delaware Valley. Included are such objects as costumes and props from the Captain Noah and his Magical Ark television program and from the Savery Collection of objects from three generations of one Philadelphia family.
Who takes care of all those toys?
In 2003, Please Touch hired a a Curator of Collections who has been reorganizing the collections storage area, photo-documenting the collections, and working with an international toy consultant to refine our Contemporary Collection and keep us updated on current toy trends. Toy Collections management is governed by our policy and procedures manual, which is consistent with the American Association of Museums’ (AAM) Code of Ethics.
Please Touch Museum stores, handles, exhibits, and conserves objects according to optimal standards, and uses the latest conservation techniques for objects made of plastic and other 20th century materials.