Toy Manufacturing

Essay

Philadelphia helped define the toy industry in the United States with simple yet engaging toys that became beloved by generations. Although social, cultural, and economic changes produced challenges for the industry, a few iconic toys stood the test of time and continued to promote imagination, creativity, and discovery for people of all ages.

A blank and white print of the Franics, Field, and Francis storefront.
The company Francis, Field, and Francis, at 80 N. Second Street, began manufacturing toys in Philadelphia in 1838. (Library Company of Philadelphia)

Philadelphia’s first toy manufacturer, among the first in the United States, opened in 1838 on North Second Street, between Race and Arch Streets. Francis, Field, and Francis, commonly known as the Philadelphia Tin Toy Manufactory, advertised imported French and German toys but also produced what is believed to be the first manufactured toy in the United States: a horse-drawn fire apparatus.

During the nineteenth century, as middle class prosperity grew, mechanical banks rose in popularity. The banks, like the “Boy on a Trapeze” bank made in Philadelphia by the J. Barton Smith Company, made the act of saving money fun for children. At the same time, designs often attracted adult interest with racial caricatures and political satire. A Philadelphia pattern maker, James H. Bowen (1877-1906), helped to make a Connecticut firm, J&E Stevens, the nation’s largest manufacturer of cast-iron toys in the country. The Stevens firm, based in Cromwell, Connecticut, originally sold hardware and a few iron toys but in 1869 manufactured its first cast-iron mechanical bank (Hall’s Excelsior). By 1890, the firm produced more than three hundred models, including Bowen designs such as “Darktown Battery,” “Girl Skipping Rope,” and “Reclining Chinaman.”

Toys by local manufacturers were among the products exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, hosted by Philadelphia in Fairmount Park. Honoring the birthplace of the nation, the Enterprise Manufacturing Company, a North Third Street firm specializing in coffee grinders, exhibited a mechanical bank in the form of Independence Hall. Another local manufacturer, James Fallows and Sons of North Second Street, displayed painted and stenciled tin horse-drawn wheeled vehicles, trains, and boats that judges commended for “economy in cost, adaptation to purpose intended, and durability.”

Albert Schoenhut’s Influence

A photograph of the Albert Schoenhut Toys storefront.
Schoenhut Toys, on Frankford Avenue in Kensington, opened in Philadelphia in 1872 when Albert Schoenhut began producing his own toys pianos. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

As cities and industries grew in the nineteenth century, mass production and department stores made an increasing array of toys more readily available for children and their families. Department store pioneer John Wanamaker (1838-1922), who sold miniature pianos and other toys, played a role in expanding local toy manufacturing in 1866 when he brought Albert Schoenhut (1849-1912) to Philadelphia to work at his store. From a family of German toymakers, Schoenhut was familiar with the manufacturing of miniature pianos and he fixed the broken glass bars by replacing them with metal ones. These new pianos had a craftsmanship that rivaled European manufacturers, making them a popular item for children in the Philadelphia area.

Recognizing the success of his pianos, Schoenhut opened his own storefront in 1872 on Frankford Avenue in Kensington and expanded his products. The company produced a variety of instruments, dolls, wooden dollhouses/furniture, and circus figures that promoted the power of play for childhood development. Around the turn of the century Schoenhut received a patent for clown figures and in 1903 began producing the popular “Humpty Dumpty Circus,” which quickly expanded to include thirty-seven animals, twenty-nine figures, and over forty accessories. By the time of Schoenhut’s death in 1912, the company was the largest toy manufacturer in the United States and the only to export to Germany, helping to build a longstanding reputation as the greatest American wooden-toy manufacturer.

Photograph of toy camel
This camel, part of the “Humpty Dumpty Circus” set of toys, was created in 1907 by the A. Schoenhut Company in Philadelphia. (Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent, Photograph by Sara Hawken)

Like other toy manufacturers, Schoenhut benefitted from a toy revolution that occurred as fewer families relied on children’s work for income. More children entered the creative world of play, creating increased consumer demand and growth for the domestic toy industry. World War I also opened a door for American manufacturing as turmoil in Europe cut off German exports to the United States, leading to record toy sales nationally for Christmas 1919. Increasing year-round demand led to the domestic toy industry producing more than $58 million worth of toys in 1925. In addition to Schoenhut, The Industrial Directory of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 1922 listed Philadelphia contributors to the industry as Ad-Craft Inc., 305 Walnut Street, a maker of games and puzzles; the Philadelphia Game Manufacturing Company, 335 N. Third Street, whose products included a “Major League Baseball” board game; Elias Goodman, Howard and Palmer Streets; and Reeve and Mitchell Co., 1228 Cherry Street, a maker of wooden toys. The Pennsylvania Manufacturing Company in Hatfield, Montgomery County, also made wooden toys.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, however, toys became a luxury and sales dropped, forcing even the A. Schoenhut Co. into bankruptcy in 1935. An additional blow occurred during World War II, when materials previously used to make toys, especially iron, were diverted to war production. As a result of the wartime iron shortage, mechanical banks and other cast iron toys faded by 1950. Instead, similar items were made of tin by companies including J. Chein and Co., a New York-based company that opened a new factory in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1949. The Chein factory turned out banks, globes, sand pails, and other children’s items by the hundreds of thousands before turning to housewares in 1976 and then closing in 1992.

The Slinky Succeeds

After World War II, Philadelphia became home to a new, iconic toy after a mechanical engineer at the Cramp Shipyard in Fishtown, Richard James (1914-74), discovered in 1943 that a device he was working on to keep equipment steady could “walk” off a shelf. Taking the idea home, after two years of experiments James invented the “Slinky,” a metal coil consisting of eighty feet of wire. By Christmas 1945 James and his wife, Betty (1918-2008), spent $500 to manufacture their new toy to be sold at Gimbels department store.  At $1 each, all four hundred Slinkys sold almost instantly. Manufactured in Philadelphia until 1964, the company then moved to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where it continued to produce more than 250 million Slinkys a year.

A color photograph of a slinky.
The Slinky was invented by Richard James at Cramp Shipyard in Philadelphia. (Photograph by Arthur Murphy)

As product demands grew during the years of the post-World War II baby boom, new manufacturing techniques increased production and decreased production costs. Scale models of airplanes, boats, military vehicles, and trains became popular, and Bachmann Trains on East Erie Avenue used an injection mold technique to produce and debut the Plasticville U.S.A. line in 1947. Bachmann, a firm founded in Philadelphia in 1833 as a manufacturer of hair ornaments, became one of the leading manufacturers for scale-model buildings used on train layouts, adding a variety of buildings to the product line through 1958. By 1963, after slot cars became more popular and the market for model trains decreased, Bachmann introduced a line of slot car accessories.  By the mid-1980s, with domestic manufacturing fading, Bachmann was bought by Hong Kong-based Kader Industries, which moved the manufacturing line to China.

Most toy manufacturing in the United States moved overseas in the late twentieth century, but the Philadelphia area also gained a local toy maker in the 1990s. After fidgeting with disposable straws at a wedding in 1990, Joel Glickman (b. 1940) created K’Nex, a building set of rods and connectors that later expanded to include gears, blocks, and wheels. Made in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, by the Rodon Group, more than 39 billion flexible plastic K’Nex pieces were produced beginning in 1992.  In 2016, K’Nex formed a holding company, Smart Brands International Co., to build its business globally.

Although the Philadelphia region had a limited presence in the industry by the twenty-first century, its toy legacy remained available for new generations in museums such as the Please Touch Museum in Fairmount Park and the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent in Center City. These toys remained some of the most iconic in the world with long-lasting influence on the industry.

Amanda Sherry is a museum professional in the greater Philadelphia region. (Author information current at time of publication.)

Copyright 2017, Rutgers University

Gallery

Girl Skipping Rope

Minneapolis Institute of Art

James H. Bowen patented his design “Girl Skipping Rope” in 1890, and J&E Stevens of Cromwell, Connecticut, produced the mechanical banks. Due to its design for young girls, this bank was unusual among others in the market.

Francis, Field, and Francis Toys

Library Company of Philadelphia

Francis, Field, and Francis, located at 80 N. Second Street in Philadelphia, began producing toys in 1838. The company, also known as the Philadelphia Tin Toy Manufactory, is believed to have produced the first toy in the United States. It also sold imported French and German toys.

This print from 1846 shows the variety of items sold by Francis, Field, and Francis in the windows of each floor. In the bottom right window, toys are on display for customers to see from the street. Saddlery, hard-ware, and lard lamps were among items for sale.

G.A. Schwarz Toy and Fancy Emporium

Library Company of Philadelphia

G.A. Schwarz Toys, located at 1006 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, opened in 1859. Schwarz’s brothers, Henry, F.A.O., and Richard Schwarz, also opened toy stores in Baltimore, New York, and Boston. Henry Schwarz opened his own store in 1872, which operated until 1922. F.A.O.’s store in New York operated from 1862 to 2015.

Albert Schoenhut Toys

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Albert Schoenhut began producing toy pianos after realizing the success of his creation at Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia. He opened A. Schoenhut’s Toy Pianos and Metallophons in 1872 on Frankford Avenue in Kensington. The largest toy company in the United States before World War I, Schoenhut remained in business until 1935 when the company declared bankruptcy.

Schoenhut Toy Camel

Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent

Manufacturing of Schoenhut’s camels as part of the “Humpty Dumpty Circus” set of toys began in 1907. Production of the popular set ceased when the business declared bankruptcy in 1935. The camel has glass eyes, leather ears, and a woven tail. Schoenhut seized the American public’s love of the circus and introduced the camel as an exotic addition to the “Humpty Dumpty Circus” set.

Additional pieces in the set included a ringmaster, acrobats, clowns, and other animals. Each piece was hand painted, and the early toys had glass eyes and real hair. The designs were intricate and the toys could be manipulated into a range of positions. They could perform “tricks” for those who played with them due to the elastic bands joining the animals’ pieces together. Tents, wagons, and additional accessories could be purchased with the thirty-seven animals and ten performers to complete the circus set. (Photograph by Sara Hawken)

Schoenhut Doll Advertisement

Scribner's Magazine via Google Books

Schoenhut emphasized the quality, craftsmanship, and “American ingenuity” of its all-wooden dolls. In 1921, Scribner’s magazine carried an advertisement for “the world’s only educational doll.”

Schoenhut Advertisement for Humpty Dumpty Circus

Women's Home Companion via Google Books

In 1913, the Women’s Home Companion published Schoenhut’s advertisement for the Humpty Dumpty Circus Set for Christmas. The set is advertised as “Toys that Gladden the Hearts of Our Dear Little Ones.”

Wanamaker's Toy Department

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

John Wanamaker established his "Grand Depot" department store in 1876 and opened his remodeled store at 1300 Market Street in Philadelphia in 1911. Albert Schoenhut began his U.S. toy-making career at an earlier Wanamaker’s store in 1866 as a toy piano repairman. The toy department of the twentieth century had a model flying machine on display, hanging from the ceiling. The eighth-floor toy department also had a monorail on which children could ride around the floor.

Slinky

Conceived by happenstance in a Philadelphia shipyard, the Slinky has become one of the most popular toys in the world. The first order of Slinkys (four hundred in total) arrived at Gimbels department store in November 1945 and sold out in ninety minutes. The toy has known international success, having walked on the Great Wall of China and blasted into space aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1985. (Photograph by Arthur Murphy)

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Related Reading

Albert Schoenhut Company. 40 Years of Toy Making, 1875-1912. Philadelphia: Albert Schoenhut Company, 1912.

Cross, Gary. Kid’s Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Cross, Gary. “Toys and Time: Playthings and parents’ attitudes toward change in early 20th-century America.” Time and Society, March 1998, 7(1): 5-24.

Kleinfeld, N.R. “The Toy Industry; Under the Tree, in Christmas Past.” New York Times, December 6, 1987.

MacFarlane, John. J. Manufacturing in Philadelphia, 1683-1912: With Photographs of Some of the Leading Industrial Establishments. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Commercial Museum, 1912.

West, Mark Irwin. “Nineteenth-Century Toys and Their Role in the Socialization of Imagination.” Journal of Popular Culture Vol. 17, No. 4 (March 1984): 107-15.

Witchel, Alex. “Talking Toys With: Betty James.” New York Times, February 21, 1996.

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