Toys Invented In 1957

Toys of Christmas Past « TV accessories

Did you know that toys and games have been part of childhood for thousands of years? As early as 4000 B.C. (before Christ), games became a source of entertainment. At that time, people of Babylon played a game that preceded the present day game of chess.

4000 BC – A Babylonian game, which is the ancestor of modern draughts begins to be played

3000 BC – First Game resembling modern Backgammon is played in Sumeria.

2000 BC – Stone marbles first used in Egypt.

1000 BC – Kites appear in China. Stone Yo-Yos begin to be used in Greece

600 BC – An ancestor of chess called ‘Chaturanga’ is played in India.

1759 – Roller skates are invented by Joseph Merlin.

Victorian Era – Victorian children had fewer toys than you have today. Poor Children – Poor families made their own, such as cloth-peg dolls and paper windmills. Children would save their pocket money to buy marbles, a spinning top, skipping ropes, kites or cheap wooden toys.

Rich Children had rocking horses with real horse hair manes, and dolls houses full of beautifully-carved miniature furniture. Other popular toys for rich children included china or wax dolls for the girls and clockwork train sets for the boys. Girls played with dolls and tea sets whilst boys played with toy soldiers and marbles.

During Victorian times, people became fascinated by toys that made pictures move. One of the earliest and simplest of these was the thaumatrope. This is a disc with a picture on either side that is attached to two pieces of string or a stick. When you spin the disc quickly, the two pictures appear to combine into one.

1901 – Meccano goes on sale in the UK. Invented by Frank Hornby in Liverpool, it captures the spirit of the age with a challenging construction toy. One of the century’s leading toy makers and creator of Hornby train sets (1920, and see 1925) and Dinky Toys, Hornby died in 1936.

1902 – In the USA, the Teddy Bear is created by a Russian emigrants Morris MiTchtom who had seen a report of US President Teddy Roosevelt who declined to shoot a bear cub while out hunting. Clifford Berryman’s celebrated newspaper cartoon captured this moment and Mitchcom launched his range of "Teddy" bears in his Brooklyn shop. German toymaker, Margarete Steiff began making jointed toy animals including bears, and they were also able to cash in on the teddy bear craze in the USA, which spread worldwide.

Antique toys and their background

You Know You're in California When..., 101 Quintessential Places, People, Events, Customs, Lingo, and Eats of the Golden State

Collecting the 20th Century

The ultimate LEGO book

Toys, tools & teachers, the challenges of technology