Kindergarten Block Set Sixth Gift Enlarged by Milton Bradley
date: label: date made
content: ca 1880-1900
name: label: maker
content: Milton Bradley Company
notes: label: Description
content: The concept of Kindergarten was developed in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, the nineteenth century. 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 had 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 consists of a wooden cherry box with a removable glass panel as the lid. The glass panel slides off to reveal the blocks stored inside the box. The set consist of 71 blocks of various sizes. The original set of this enlarged version of Gift 6 was supposed to contain 100 blocks but given the reaining space in the box it is highly probable that some of the larger blocks that should have been in a gift 4 container were consolidated with these blocks put away after play in this container.
label: Description
content: Milton Bradley Company was established in 1860 by Milton Bradley (1836-1911). 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
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: 2014.0244.115
label: accession number
content: 2014.0244
label: catalog number
content: 2014.0244.115
objectType: label: Object Name
content: kindergarten block set
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (lid material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood, cherry (container material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (label material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (label material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 17.5 cm x 17.8 cm x 17.7 cm; 6 7/8 in x 7 in x 6 31/32 in