The American Journal of Play

Strong National Museum of Play is the only museum anywhere devoted solely to the role of play in learning and human development and the ways in which play illuminates American cultural history. Both collections-based and hands-on, Strong is among the largest history museums in the United States and is also the nation’s second largest children’s museum.

Strong houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of toys, games, and other play-related artifacts. The museum is home to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games; the National Toy Hall of Fame; the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play; the Woodbury Preschool (which features a play-based, emergent curriculum); and many innovative exhibitions, such as Field of Play, Reading Adventureland, Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?, and The Berenstain Bears: Down a Sunny Dirt Road. Each year the museum hosts more than half a million guests and delivers standards-based school lessons to more than 20,000 students and training to more than 700 pre-service and in-service teachers.