The Museum of Childhood, situated on the Royal Mile, has four floors filled with 50,000 toys, games and items relating to hobbies from across the generations.
It was the first museum in the world to specialise in the history of childhood, founded by an Edinburgh councillor and toy enthusiast Patrick Murray in 1955.
Childhood memorabilia ranges from train sets to rocking horses and roller boots to old board games.
Exhibits include children’s books and comics. In another there are full-size room sets – a favourite being a Victorian school classroom with a blackboard and wooden desks with inkwells.
One of the exhibits has a large collection of dolls - the oldest there is a rare wooden fashion doll of Queen Anne from 1740. There is also a Shoe Doll made in London in 1905 from the sole of a shoe and scraps of household fabric. It was saved for posterity by British collector, Edward Lovett, as a poignant reminder of families who couldn’t afford to buy toys.
There are impressive period dolls houses – the largest being the Stanbrig Eorls dolls house with more than 2000 items of furniture and contents. It was begun in 1894 by Lena Graham-Montgomery who continued to extend it throughout her life. Eventually, the house had 19 rooms with electric light and running water.
The recently refurbished room on the ground floor has 60 objects relating to childhood – including retro favourites such as a Buzz Lightyear action figure from the year 2000 and a Fisher-Price Chatter Telephone dating to 1979.
Although, the room on the ground floor has been improved with some interactive displays and descriptions, the rest of the museum still needs to be updated. The museum, for example, could display more iconic toys and games from the 90s – namely Tamagotchi, Beanie Babies, Bop It, Furby, Polly Pocket, Slinky. This would allow younger visitors a feeling of nostalgia whether they believe that this was an amazing or terrible decade for toys.
Today, the museum attracts more than 250,000 visitors a year and does well in highlighting the importance of play and fun for children in terms of their development and learning.
It hosts a programme of events for children and adults such museum tours, Art and Craft classes and children’s entertainment such as magic shows. To find out more about the events, visit their website, below, or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MuseumOfChildhood/.
Details.
Address: Museum of Childhood, 42 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TG.
Opening Hours: Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm and Sunday 12 noon - 5pm.
Website: https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/museum-childhood
Contact: +44 (0) 131 529 4142 or museumsandgalleries@edinburgh.gov.uk
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