Simple Colonial Toys

Grown in the garden and spun like a top!

Since toys were derived from simple materials handy in a child's environment, the mechanisms were simple as well. Homestead Folk Toys shows several versions of traditional toys from several time periods. Tops play a large part of traditional toys as so thaumatropes.  Spinner gourds get their name from the spinning action they produce when spun quickly by the neck-end of the gourd.

Thaumatropes, also referred to as whirligigs or a buzzsaw toy, are another type of spinning action involved two different but related images spun so fast they appear to be moving - as early motion picture show!

The balero, or toss-and-catch toy, uses eye-hand coordination. This takes a variety of shapes but basically uses a string to connect two objects: one is caught by the other after swinging it into the air and letting gravity do the work of dropping it into or onto the other object.

Bilbo: another term for a toss/catch toy.

Any of these toys could be easily translated into a gourd toy. The top can easily be make with a spinner gourd, the thaumatrope with a large disco gourd wall, and toss/catch toy with a hollowed out gourd on a stick or a long handled gourd with a small gourd attached with a string.  All would exhibit a gourd with motion!

So now, given this information, what other playthings could be adapted, or re-fashioned using gourds?

Colonial Toys Using Natural Products

Colonial toys were made of materials commonly handy around the house or farm such as wood, bits of cloth, sticks, corn husks, animal bones, and acorn tops. Does this suggest the use of gourds would have been a natural leap since gourds were grown on farms and, once dehydrated, took on some of the characteristics of wood with the added bonus of being curved?  Debbie Starnes of the Indiana Gourd Society explains the process for making a gourd head doll.  In fact, dolls may be the most ancient toy since evidence of dolls exists from as early as the 3rd century.  It is only a small leap to think industrialization would have led to mechanisms for a doll to move its parts such as arms and legs.

What proof is there for early dolls made with gourds?  The same article talks about toys being made from local materials such as gourds filled with pebbles to make rattles. If gourds were grown locally in gardens and are farms, then they would have been available for a wide variety of purposes: medicinal ritual, musical instruments, dance, and maybe even toys.