 Sally Kirby Hartman Collection (S-95-43-151) |
 Ada Lee Shook Collection/Carl Smith, photographer (S-98-85-1808) |
LEFT: Railey Steele on a homemade barrel
pony, Gravette, July 4, 1938. Toys can be simple or complex, store-bought or homemade. Long ago in the Ozarks, girls played with dolls made from fabric scraps, corn husks, or empty spools of thread. Boys had stick horses and slingshots made from tree branches. The coming of the railroad to Northwest Arkansas in
1881 allowed stores to carry a large variety of manufactured toys,
some of which were imported from Germany. National mail-order businesses
like Sears, Roebuck and Co., which offered its first catalog in 1888,
made toys even easier for children to dream of, and more affordable
for parents to purchase. |