Do you long for the days when all you had to do was run around and play? What if I told you that playtime for children isn’t always about fun?
Meredith A. Bak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden. She is the author of Playful Visions: Optical Toys and the Emergence of Children’s Media Culture. In this edition of Radio Chipstone, Bak tells contributor gianofer fields that the optical toys used by children in the nineteenth century during their leisure time, were serious business.
About the Host:
gianofer (JON nah fer) fields is an Art Historian and Material Culture contributor and curates the Radio Chipstone series. The project is hosted by the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and funded by the Chipstone Foundation; a decorative arts foundation whose mission is preserving and interpreting their collection, as well as stimulating research and education in the decorative arts.
About the Guest:
Meredith A. Bak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden. Her research is focused on children’s toys, media, and visual, and material cultures from the nineteenth century to the present day. She is the author of Playful Visions: Optical Toys and the Emergence of Children’s Media Culture.
Image: “Kaleidoscope” by Kerry and Janet Wilson on Flickr.
