Global InformationThe Strong National Museum of Play information
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 The exterior of The Strong, featuring a piece of public art, showcasing four popular children's toys. From front to back: dominoes, interlocking bricks akin to those manufactured by LEGO, crayons, and toy blocks with the first five letters of the English alphabet | |
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| Established | 1969 |
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| Location | Rochester, NY, USA |
| Type | Children's museum |
| Collections | Toys, video games |
| Owner | The Strong |
| Website | museumofplay.org |
The Strong National Museum of Play (also known as just The Strong Museum or simply the Strong) is part of The Strong in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1969 and initially based on the personal collection of Rochester native Margaret Woodbury Strong, the museum opened to the public in 1982, after several years of planning, cataloguing, and exhibition development for the museum's new building in downtown Rochester.
For at least fifteen years after its opened, the mission of the museum was to interpret the social and cultural history of average Americans between 1830 and 1940, under the direction of H.J. Swinney and William T. Alderson. Mrs. Strong's collections of dolls and toys, American and European decorative arts, prints, paintings, Japanese crafts, and advertising ephemera provided a firm foundation for this mission, and were supplemented with collections purchased and donated to more fully support the museum's early mission. The museum received considerable local and national publicity/support as well as substantial financial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities' Exhibitions and Public Programs division.[1]
In the 1990s, the museum's Board of Trustees and director changed the museum's mission to collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of play. Since then, it has refined and increased its collections (hundreds of thousands of items), and expanded thrice, in 1997, 2006, and 2023.[2][3][4]
The museum is now one of six Play Partners of The Strong, which is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame, the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, and produces the American Journal of Play.
- ^ "A Fascination With The Common Place". American Heritage. Archived from the original on 2018-12-19. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
- ^ Adams, Rollie G. (2006). "Ready, Set, Go: Finally a Museum of Play". History News. Vol. 61, no. 3. pp. 7–11.
- ^ Tangorra Matelic, Candace (2008). "Understanding Change and Transformations in History Organizations". History News. Vol. 63, no. 2. pp. 7–14.
- ^ Greenwood, Marcia (3 July 2023). "The Strong National Museum of Play at last reveals massive expansion. Take a peek". Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved 5 August 2023.