Liberty Blocks, The Patriotic Instructor
date: label: patent date
content: 1916
label: copyrite date
content: 1918
notes: label: Description
content: Educational parquetry tile games were common as a kindergarten or primary grade manipulative. “Liberty Blocks, The Patriotic Instructor” was created during World War I by Mutual Manufacturing of Dayton, Ohio as a toy to show support for American, Canadian, and British troops, though a few other countries are listed. The game consists of wooden tiles or “blocks” cut on the diagonal, and painted on both sides with different designs in varying combinations of red, white, and blue. The instructions illustrate possible designs and patterns associated with flag symbolism and are also indicative of various quilt patterns. The imagery is representative of Americanization in the classroom. Because they were painted wood they could be easily cleaned, which was particularly important during the flu epidemic and is alway useful given the age of the users.
label: Description
content: Mutual Manufacturing was founded in 1899 and became Modern Specialty Company, headquartered in Chicago.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Ohio, Dayton
topic: label: used
content: Education
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: 2014.0244.270
label: accession number
content: 2014.0244
label: catalog number
content: 2014.0244.2
objectType: label: Object Name
content: game
label: Object Type
content: educational toys
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cardboard (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 28.5 cm x 26 cm x 1 cm; 11 7/32 in x 10 1/4 in x 13/32 in