Toys for Male Youth

1850-1920

 

In the antebellum period many toys were handcrafted; made either by boys themselves or by their parents. After the Civil War, the nature of toys and games for boys changed dramatically. A rise in a consumer culture along with the emergence of a large middleclass created a demand for mass-produced toys. Some toys that became very popular for boys in the Northeast were toy soldiers, guns, and sleds. In play, these toys served as learning tools for the boys. Through toys, boys were able to rehearse adult roles and envision great successes for themselves in later life.[1]

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries children’s periodicals such as the Youth’s Companion began to advertise mass-produced toys. In describing the toys, advertisers sought to attract both boys and their parents. An example of this is an advertisement for a fishing pole which describes its product as “desirable for boys, owing to [its] great strength and durability.” The Stevens Manufacturing Company described its product, a rifle company, as necessary for boys because, “Its possession makes a boy feel like a man and a hero, and its influence in encouraging out-of-door life repays its cost many folds in the good health secured.” Such companies imagined their products as not just toys but as a way to propel boys into self-made men.