Museumofplayfeed

About 10 years ago, I came across an article about John William Patrick Ryan, “Jack,” an eccentric, Yale-educated electrical engineer. He hosted dinner parties in a tree house with a crystal chandelier; drove a 1935 Reo fire engine around Bel Air, California; designed Cold War missiles; and married five times, including once to Zsa Zsa Gabor. Like many of the women Ryan charm...

By Adam Nedeff, researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History

60 years ago, this month—October 17, 1966, to be precise—game show fans first laid eyes upon the largest tic-tac-toe grid ever constructed, an 18’ by 18’ arrangement of boxes and lights from which some of the funniest gags in game show history would emit. The Hollywood Squ...

The year is 2013. I’m in my college dorm, putting little board game pieces into bags. The year is 2026. I’m in my office, putting little board game pieces into bags. The more things change, the more things stay the same. But these bags are archival polyethylene, I’m wearing nitrile gloves, and I might be overthinking it.

As one of The Strong’s curators, I decide whi...

It’s interesting how as time passes, something that felt like a cultural fixture becomes a blink in time. For me, the iPod exemplifies that phenomenon. I was in middle school and high school around 2008 to 2012, during its prime, when I upgraded from a simple mp3 player to the iPod and its world of iTunes and digital music downloads. In 2008, I was rocking the 3rd generation ...

By: Dr. Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez, 2025 Valentine-Cosman Research Fellow

For generations of children, brushing Barbie’s hair has been as central to play as dressing her in the latest fashions. Beyond the familiar brush tucked into countless doll boxes, Mattel has repeatedly returned to hair as a site of innovation—designing dolls and accessories that tr...