Kindergarten Block Set Gift No. 3 by Milton Bradley
date: label: date made
content: ca 1880-1900
name: label: maker
content: Milton Bradley Company
notes: label: Description
content: Kindergarten as a concept was developed in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), a student of Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Froebel’s German kindergartens encouraged children to enjoy natural studies, music, stories, play with manipulative learning toys. He recommended teachers use geometric shapes and crafts for teaching and advocated the use of ‘gifts’ or playthings in the form of geometric shapes to promote learning and occupations or activities. Froebel also incorporated learning through expression, systematized play and social imitation. The first kindergarten opened in Germany in 1837; the first in the US was opened by Margarethe Schurz to a German speaking community in Wisconsin in 1856. In 1860, Elizabeth Peabody opened the first English speaking kindergarten in Boston. Over time, kindergarten was introduced into public schools with the changed purpose of providing an early academic foundation for 5 and 6-year old children preparing for 1st grade.
label: Description
content: This set of blocks is the third “gift” in the series manufactured by the Milton Bradley Company. The blocks are in a small, square brown wooden box with a removable sliding top and a faded red label on one side. The box contains a full set of eight cube-shaped blocks.
label: Description
content: Milton Bradley Company was established by Milton Bradley (1836-1911) in 1860. A mechanical draughtsman and patent agent interested in lithography, board games and puzzles, Milton Bradley became interested in the kindergarten movement after he attended a lecture by Elizabeth Peabody in 1869. Elizabeth and her sister Mary, who was by then the widow of educator Horace Mann, were devoted to promoting Froebel’s philosophy of creative play for pre-school children and helped spread of the Kindergarten Movement to America’s cities. These “gift boxes” are examples of school equipment made by Milton Bradley sometime between 1880 to 1900 for use in kindergartens. Milton Bradley produced educational materials free of charge for the kindergartens in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts and was committed to developing kindergarten educational materials such as these gifts, colored papers and paints.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Springfield
topic: label: used
content: Education
label: used
content: Kindergarten
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
label: See more items in
content: Women Teaching Math
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dr. Richard Lodish American School Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2014.0244.376
label: accession number
content: 2014.0244
label: catalog number
content: 2014.0244.376
objectType: label: Object Name
content: kindergarten block set
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood, maple (blocks material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (label material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (label material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood, cherry (container material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6.2 cm x 6.6 cm x 6.7 cm; 2 7/16 in x 2 19/32 in x 2 5/8 in