Title: Small wonder
Subtitle: worlds in a box
First published: 1996
Description: In Small Wonder: Worlds in a Box, David Levinthal takes as his subject a remarkable series of 1950s playsets manufactured by master toymakers Louis Marx and T. Cohn.

As a reflection of the obsessive play of the 1950s and the current nostalgia for such items, Levinthal's tabletop photography allows the reader a bird's-eye view of imaginary tableaux - Legionnaire Captain Gallant in the desert, Fort Apache and the Wild West, boy scouts camping in the woods, and travelers making a stop at a roadside Howard Johnson's. Playset vignettes are like stills from a movie of American popular culture's collective unconscious.

In the book's introduction, David Corey explores the history of playsets and their effect on American children in the 1950s.
Subjects: Artistic Photography, Toys, Toys in art, History, New York Times reviewed, Miniature objects
Places: United States
People: David Levinthal
Time periods: 20th century
LC classification: TR654 .L45916 1996