Educational toys – toys that encourage play and learning – are a mainstay in our stores today, but it wasn’t always that way. In the early 1900s, most children’s toys were mere playthings and were either homemade or imported from Europe. And then along came Alfred Carlton (A.C.) Gilbert.
Born in Salem on February 15, 1884, Gilbert grew to become an Olympic champion, professional magician, and a Yale-trained physician. But toys, especially toys that taught and engaged kids, were his true love.
Gilbert got his start in toys during his college years at Yale when he and a friend made and sold magic kits. When it became clear after graduation that sales of magic kits would not support his small but growing family, Gilbert came up with a new idea. Inspired by watching construction crews erecting towers while riding the train from New York City to Connecticut, he decided to make and sell construction kits.
The kits – which would become known as Erector Sets – were made up of metal girders with nuts and bolts to connect them. Pictures of models to build accompanied the kits, but young builders were limited only by their imaginations.
Gilbert introduced his kits to the world in 1913 at the Toy Fair in New York City. The world loved them, and the A.C. Gilbert Company was well on its way to transform the toy industry: American-made toys, advertising directed at children, toys that encouraged thinking and doing.
Even when World War I came along, threatening to divert all manufacturing (even toys!) to the war effort, Gilbert was not deterred from engaging children in purposeful play. He simply traveled to Washington DC and persuaded The National Council of Defense to allow toymakers to continue manufacturing toys.
After that, Gilbert added more toys that encouraged thinking and learning: chemistry sets, telescopes, microscopes, and every type of science kit you might imagine, including the Atomic Energy Lab, complete with Geiger counter and radioactive particles! The A.C. Gilbert Company became one of the most successful and well-known toymakers in America.
So, why don’t we hear of The A.C. Gilbert Company today? The answer is simple. By the 1950s, America’s children were more interested in hula hoops and Silly Putty than construction sets and science kits. Gilbert retired in 1954, and turned the company over to his son. In 1961, Gilbert died. Three years later, his son died unexpectedly. By 1967, the A.C. Gilbert Company was bankrupt. The Erector name was eventually sold to the Meccano Company, a longtime competitor, and they continue to produce Erector construction kits of their own design today.
While the toys made by the A.C. Gilbert Company are limited mainly to collectors today, Gilbert’s legacy will live for all as long as there are manufacturers producing playthings that encourage children to think and learn.
Robert Young is an Oregon author of more than 25 books for children, including The Magic of A.C. Gilbert, a 32-page picture book biography. Books are available at the author’s website (www.realwriting.us) and at amazon.com.
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