September 2007 - July 2008
Since before recorded time toys have not only served to delight children, but also to prepare them for adulthood. For thousands of years they were hand crafted from wood and other natural materials. By the nineteenth century, the industrial revolution led to the first mass production of toys. As these products became widely available, they also became more affordable. Various types of metals were used, with cast iron, tin, and pressed steel being the most common in the early twentieth century. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, manufacturers began to turn to cheaper, lighter, and more abundant materials such as zinc alloy, rubber, and plastic. Throughout the twentieth century, toys reflected a rapidly changing technological and mechanized world. This was most apparent in the area of aviation.
Aviation toys have existed since before humans achieved flight in an airplane. They were available for purchase as early as the 1870s. Orville and Wilbur Wright credited a rubber–powered toy flying machine given to them by their father in 1878 as an inspiration for developing the first airplane. Not until the 1910s did aviation toys begin to enter the marketplace in noticeable numbers. Their production was usually spurred on by historic achievements in flight. By the late 1920s they became widespread, particularly after Charles A. Lindbergh's record–breaking transatlantic flight in May 1927. Unprecedented public enthusiasm for aviation spread across the United States. Aeronautics was seen as ushering in a great technological age for the nation. A high priority was placed on promoting aeronautical education among the youth of America, who would become the next generation to carry on the advancement of aviation. Introducing children to the basics of aeronautics at an early age through toys, games, books, magazines, and other means was deemed vital to this goal. Manufacturers began producing large numbers of aviation toys promoted as having an "air-minded" educational component and closely resembling advanced aircraft of the day. Production of aviation toys continued until World War II, when the demand for raw materials took precedence.
During this early phase, and particularly the 1920s and 1930s, popularly known as the "Golden Age of Aviation," many of the nation's youth played with toys like the ones on display in this exhibition. In a period when very few adults had flown in an airplane, yet were interested spectators of aviation, their children were preparing to take to the skies in far greater numbers. In the following decades, this generation would create and utilize the global, air–transport network that would bring a profound social and cultural transformation to the twentieth century.