A Children's World: Toy and Doll Exhibit Returns to Clinton Academy

will once again exhibit antique toys from 1820 to 1950 in "A Children's World," which opens this weekend at . Holiday cards from the early 20th century will also be featured, but favorite dolls, blocks, children's games, penny banks, will be back again.

While Richard Barons, director of the society, was setting up for the annual exhibit on Wednesday, he explained how it got started: "We thought, what better thing to do at the Holiday time then to get out a lot of toys from our collection which don't get out very often."

A big wheel bicycle, a rocking horse, a child's folding Victorian chair, tanks, and 150 year old woven samples are just some of the items on display. 

Some of the items are on loan just for the exhibit. "We gather antique toys from our collection and then we also borrow them from local historical societies, private collectors and also from people who grew up with the toys."

He's always looking for different items. "We look for different things, bringing back some of the things we had before and this year, I think, the most amazing thing that's come up so far is a pedal car that is a torpedo, probably from about 1940, 1942." 

"Envision the world that gives their child a torpedo underneath the Christmas tree to ride on. It's amazing," he said. "It isn't what you would think of as being a toy."

He talked about the use of toys in earlier times to steer the imagination toward something that would prove educational, saying, "I think that was the idea of toys anyway, and was always sexist of course but . . .  There is going to be a little doll set that came from Gardiner's Island, made about 1810 and that was of course so the little girl would learn to set the table because that's what she was going to do."

He added, "Dolls; getting them ready to have babies, how to dress them. Boys; trucks and diggers. I'm afraid that today we look upon that in a negative way but at that time, all of that was educational."

The display is a deviation from the usual holiday toy shopping. "It's not as though you're in a toy store and thinking 'I want this. I want this. I want that.'"

According to Barons, little kids and grown-ups who are kids at heart enjoy the exhibit just as much. "It's interesting. I would have told you before the show opened that adults would have liked it better and they certainly did, they got very nostalgic."

But children, particularly those between about 5 and 12, have given past exhibits a great response. "The dolls are more different and interesting than what they would normally see; the figures are nothing like Barbie after all."

One of his favorite things about seeing people's reaction to the exhibit, he said, is that "Our imaginations can take us anywhere we want to go, as long as we let ourselves go and let our imaginations go." He added, "It's nice to see that come out."

"A Children's World" will be on display from Saturday until Dec. 19, but Clinton Academy is only open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.