The New Prague Area Historical Society is celebrating toys with a display at the New Prague Memorial Library from now until the end of January.
Dennis Dvorak of the historical society said the toys are ones from the Victorian era. “Some are 125 years old and they have been well cared for,” Dvorak said, adding some of the toys are made of metal or wood. Another reason the toys are well preserved is there was usually only one child in the family, who didn’t have to share his or her toys with others, said Dvorak.
Other toys had lithographic prints on them, he said. Lithograph is a type of print making method that can produce high-quality prints of text or images. “The lithography industry was at its height,” said Dvorak. “Lithography would produce beautiful images that sometimes would tell a story.”
Toys in the display that have lithographic print are colorful blocks with pictures, one showing an early version of Santa Claus, and others that have the alphabet on them.
“This was the era where children were seen and not heard. That continued well into the years of World War II,” Dvorak said.
“A lot of these toys represent people who lived in cities,” said Dvorak, although parents who lived in rural settings could order the same toys through Sears and Roebuck’s catalogs. He noted the catalogs included many things people could order, even full sets for farmers to build barns or for families who could build a house.
Some of the toys were simply...
To see more on this story pick up the December 25, 2025 print edition of The New Prague Times.