No matter how much people talk about the importance of family and togetherness during the holidays, every kid knows it’s really all about the toys.

Just in time for the season, the National Museum of American History is presenting “Toys and Childhood,” a display of
33 cast-iron and tinplate toys made between the 1870s and 1950s.

“Toys give us insight into leisure activities, gender roles, education and children’s roles in the marketplace,” says William H. Yeingst, co-curator of the display. “They serve as pathways to stories about children and their experience in American history.”

The toys on display are divided into three categories: work, transportation and circus. (This was the golden age of the circus, after all.) When selecting the toys from the more than 1,400 in the museum’s collections, Yeingst says, the curators chose to highlight “examples in good condition, ones that would entertain and delight children.”

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Little ones will have to settle for gazing and imagining — the toys are locked away in glass cases.

National Museum of American History, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW; through Jan. 3, free.

Clown and Camel Chariot, 1910s

This unusual circus toy was made by the Kenton Hardware Co. Founded in the 1890s in Kenton, Ohio, a small city of only several thousand residents, the business originally produced cast-iron locks, doorknobs and hardware for furniture. In 1894, the company also started making toys and soon became one of the largest manufacturers of cast-iron toys in the world. One of the county’s largest employers at the time, the Kenton Hardware Co. created a variety of miniature fire engines, circus wagons, carriages, banks and trains up until it ceased production in the 1950s.

Water Tower Truck, circa 1927

Another Kenton Hardware Co. toy, this truck is a great example of how toymakers sought to keep up with the newest trends in technology. “When tractors displaced horses on farms, they also displaced them in toys,” says exhibit co-curator William H. Yeingst. The same goes for horse-drawn vs. gas-powered fire engines. “We look at these toys through the lens of history and nostalgia,” Yeingst says, “but when they were new, they were the most recent fashionable models, made with the most recent technology.”

Royal Circus Polar Bear Cage Wagon, 1919-26

This circus wagon is the creation of Lancaster, Pa.’s Hubley Manufacturing Co., a competitor of the Kenton Hardware Co. Like Kenton, Hubley was founded in the 1890s, right as the cast-iron toy trend was taking off. In addition to the toys, Hubley made beautifully designed doorstops and bookends. The company later became known for its meticulously detailed models and replicas of cars and airplanes, before going out of business around 1980. According to several auction websites, the Royal Circus series is among the most coveted for toy collectors.

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