The Reign of Children: The Role of Games and Toys in American Public Libraries, 1876–1925

Librarians' long-standing interest in good books for children is well documented by historians of the profession; less studied but also evident is librarians' use of toys and games to stimulate enjoyment and learning in the library.1 This aspect of library services for the young is a notable antecedent to the profession's considerable present-day interest in nonbook resources.2 It is also compelling as an intersection of library, educational, and mercantile interests in the child, whose needs were represented in the professional discourses and commercial products of the era. Examined in this context, the materials that young people encountered in libraries courtesy of Lowe and her colleagues reveal a distinctive mode of professional practice that diverged, sharply at times, from the "early attempts on the part of well-meaning men and women to provide children with books" whose work has long inflected histories of US libraries.17 The emergence of the children's room reversed earlier public library policies barring young people.\n Despite the shift in emphasis brought about by efforts to bring children's services in line with the conventions of adult services, games and toys were once a standard part of children's services in American libraries.