Built in 1835, Variety Unit, the only structure original to the Museum grounds, is an example of “continuous” architecture common to New England farmhouses.

[2] Simple toys, both homemade and commercially produced, such as clay or glass marbles and cloth, wood, leather, or rubber balls, were widely available for purchase and would often reappear in new materials as manufacturing technology improved.

Educational games, that began to appear in the late eighteenth century, document the skills and subjects that children were expected to master.

The abundance of commercially produced American and European toys that appeared throughout the nineteenth century attests to technological advances and to changing perceptions of childhood and leisure.

Cottage industries on both continents produced wooden blocks, hobby and rocking horses, puppets, dolls, and other simple toys of paper, cloth, wood, and metal.