Participating as guest curator on the “Playing to Learn; Learning as Play” exhibit has been a novel learning experience for me. I have always loved going to special collections displays as well as to art gallery shows and wandering around, gazing at the artifacts, reading the labels and signs, and pondering what story I see being told to the perambulating viewer. To be involved with such a display has been one of my non-secret dreams. The difference between imagining such a role and doing the role is vastly different and in some ways parallels the difference between being a library user or reader, an outsider role, and a worker in a collection, an insider role. The reference desk in a rare books room symbolizes the separation and is the liminal space between. I have now temporarily gone behind the desk to enter the secret library, the one that appears at night when it is closed to the public.

A number of times over the winter Sandy and I have stayed after hours or come in early before the library opens to work on the display: to search the catalogue, to decide on what materials to select, to sort objects in groups and one memorable day to gingerly lay the objects in a possible order on top of the closed display cases with another display still inside! This was in order to gain a sense of the visual impact of the items and their potential location within the cases and to understand the relation between the cases and so determine their numbering. The proximity and order helps us determine a potential route for a visitor and their movement amongst the overall display, which also includes posters on walls, high display cases, and a large screen. A daunting activity for me was when we had to write promotional material before the display was in its final form. This is the complete opposite of academic writing.

This turn-around world reminds me of a couple of things. One is a silly movie set in a large natural science museum at night—it had Ben Stiller as the lead actor—and the various prehistoric creatures had a busy and complicated night life. In our situation, the objects did not come alive when we were working as did his dinosaurs, but the idea of a secret world waiting to unfurl was very present. The experience also reminded me of working backstage with many others to create a slowly unfurling theatrical performance for the public who only see a finished product. Moreover, the display is not a static entity but an active constellation of objects temporarily fixed in a case. Still more are being added. And like any performance or instillation, it is temporary.

Come one come all to the display Sandy Stelts and I are co-curating in special collections at Penn State library! Images of old circus flyers and sounds of the old Ed Sullivan show merge in my head as I announce it.

Called “Playing to Learn, Learning as Play: 17th- to 19th-century ‘Play-things’ for Children” it is new exhibition on through June 3 in the Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, on Penn State’s University Park campus. The exhibition features dozens of 17th- to 19th-century children’s ‘play-things’ — including toys, games and books once owned by busy, active children.

The materials range from geographic and moral board games to dissected maps or puzzles; from paper dolls to metamorphic turn-up books; and from antic harlequinades to complex movable books.

Some of these items enabled children to make artifacts themselves, as 17th-century philosopher John Locke urged in his famous dictum in Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693). Learning and playing had not previously been linked together, and Locke argued that children’s learning should be a playful, interactive experience.

The materials in the exhibition trace the interconnected European, British and American trajectory in the development of educational “play-things,” and they all invited participatory engagement with children who were readers, viewers and players. The invitation to participate actively was achieved in different ways: by working with drawing kits, construction toys, storytelling blocks and toy theaters, for example. To enhance this aspect, we displayed items, as much as possible, shown in process of being played with, whether a construction toy or story telling cards or paper doll book.

The library site also includes a couple of lovely photos that I include below taken by Jill Shockey. The first shows a board game with play in process. The Swiss puzzle “To the far west” invites you into the display and travel around winding through the 12 cases. It also shows the travel trajectory many of the items, from Europe to the United States. The second items are   masquerade blocks and flat wooden pieces similarly captured in play. They are three dimensional and two dimensional visual storytelling games, much like today’s head, body and tail books and toys.

My doctoral student Laura D’Aveta took a photo of me standing beside the poster outside the library. I was taken by surprise but thrilled as you can see. Imagine this blog entry as me hailing to one and all to come into our display. I will describe the items, categories, route of the display and the long genesis in later posts.