Collections
From Magna Doodle, View Master, Rubik’s Cube and Chutes and Ladders to Barbie dolls and Star Wars action figures, Please Touch Museum’s Collections feature over 14,000 items–primarily toys manufactured after 1945–that will be prominently displayed at Memorial Hall. All items in the museum’s collection are a developmentally appropriate means for interpreting the history of child life. The collections are used in exhibits and educational programs.
The primary collection of Please Touch Museum is toys. Toys guide play, engender creativity and cultivate the imagination. Toys offer children ways to develop their brain power in strategic and critical thinking...and toys help children in all the stages of play: social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language. Plus, they’re fun!
Why does Please Touch Museum collect toys
We are a collecting institution that believes young children derive multiple benefits from object-based learning. Our collections are
critically important for fulfilling our mission of enriching the lives of children. They support our efforts to serve as a first museum experience that promotes lifelong learning and cultural awareness, while reflecting and revealing history of childlife. The collection objects become learning tools to engage children’s minds and the imagination as they observe objects in exhibits.
What kind of toys does Please Touch Museum collect?
Please Touch Museum’s collections are organized in five main categories: Childlife, Art, Multicultural,
Natural Science, and Science and Technology.
Please Touch’s primary collection, the Childlife Collection, includes three subsections: the Contemporary Toy Collection (objects dating from 1982 onward that represent the yearly top selling toy trends), the Historical Childlife Collection (objects documenting the material culture of childhood post 1945, especially in the Delaware Valley), and the Childlife Archives
(photographs and primary materials that
document other parts of the collection).
Who takes care of all those toys?
In 2003, Please Touch hired a Curator of Collections who has been reorganizing the collections storage area, photo-documenting the collections, and working with an international toy consultant to refine our Contemporary Collection and keep us updated on current toy trends. Toy Collections management is governed by our policy and procedures manual, which is consistent with the American Association of
Museums’ (AAM) Code of Ethics.
Please Touch Museum stores, handles, exhibits, and conserves objects according to optimal standards, and uses the latest conservation
techniques for objects made of plastic and other 20th century materials.
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