TIMELINESeptember 2005 Retired schoolteacher George Wetzel calls the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., to inquire about donating his collection of vintage building toys. He estimates his collection, amassed over 25 years and stored in his attic, to number around 1,400. Chase Rynd, the museum's executive director, agrees to visit Wetzel's home in Peotone, Ill. Rynd has been faced with the challenge of collecting for a museum whose core subject—buildings—is essentially uncollectible. Arriving in Peotone, Rynd is astonished to see the size and scope of the toy collection. As a bonus, he recalls, “I got to play with them.”
July 10, 2006 Four staff people from the Building Museum arrive in Peotone and begin to empty the Wetzel attic, inventorying, tagging, and packing the collection in the family's living room. Each night, art transporters pick up the bins filled that day, usually three to five boxes weighing 200 to 300 pounds each.
July 31, 2006 With the inventory complete, the Building Museum can attach a dollar figure to the toys as objects (over $500,000) but not to Wetzel's time and knowledge in building the collection (priceless). The museum buys the bulk of the collection for an undisclosed sum, and Wetzel agrees to donate the rest.
August 9, 2006 Two air-ride, climate-controlled tractor trailers deliver the collection to the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Fifty-five bins of toys are unloaded in the museum's Great Hall.
November 2006 An empty gallery space on the third floor of the museum is transformed into a permanent storage and cataloging space for the toy collection, which on closer inspection seems to number closer to 2,000 than Wetzel's original estimate of 1,400. Baked-enamel steel shelving provides 1,053 linear feet of open-view storage, which not only helps catalogers see what they're doing but also helps the museum's fundraising by bringing visitors behind the scenes to see the work in progress. To protect the toys, a hydrothermograph regulates the climate at 50 percent relative humidity and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. UV sleeves cover the overhead fluorescent lights.
May 22, 2007 Cataloging begins with object 2006.5.001, alphabet blocks, manufacturer unknown. Wooden ABC blocks are among the earliest forms of building toys—both in terms of history and the way children learn to play. Pictured here, object 2006.5.37, Big Letter ABC Blocks, copyright 1889 by McLoughlin Bros., New York. The hand-stitched repair along the sides of the box make this one of registrar Dana Twersky's favorite items in the collection.
August 7, 2007 Item 2006.5.97, architectural wooden blocks from The Embossing Co. There is no date on the toy, but the box top shows two people in Victorian style clothing, suggesting that the toy is from the late 1800s.
February 14, 2008 One of many sets of Lincoln Logs, object number 2006.5.140, circa 1955.
Forecast: October 2009 With a full-timer on staff, catalogers could reach the shelves of Froebels wooden blocks next fall. Frank Lloyd Wright had a set as a child and would later recall, “The smooth shapely maple blocks with which to build, the sense of which never afterwards leaves the fingers: so form became feeling.”
Forecast: December 2009 Heavy in their wooden boxes are “stone” block sets, such as the Richter's Anchor Blocks shown here. The German stacking blocks feel like real stone but are made from compressed and dyed sand, chalk, and linseed-oil varnish. The popular early 20th century toys came with guides illustrating possible designs. Richter blocks fall into the category collectors call “Sunday toys”—treasured items children played with once a week.
Forecast: July 2010 The collection includes 531 metal toys, of which 108 are Erector sets. Knockoffs include the Ezy-Bilt, an Australian toy that claims to be “Creative Constructive Instructive Absorbing 1001 Toys from One.”
Forecast: September 2011 LEGOs aren't the only plastic building toys. Predating LEGOs is the Tri-State Brick Town, advertised as “Professional! Instructional! Authentic!”
Forecast: April 2012 Ninety cardboard toys make up a small section of the collection. Mostly produced during the Depression and World War II, cardboard toys haven't survived the test of time as well as other materials.
Forecast: July 2012 Dominoes, puzzles, and assorted parts are grouped under the miscellaneous category, which the museum plans to catalog last.