Names

Edith Cowan University Museum of Childhood Collection

ECU Museum of Childhood Collection

IDs

WAM 16

http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/research/collections/social-history/history-introduction

Descriptions

The ECU Museum of Childhood Collection is a nationally significant collection of 24,000 items reflective of Western Australian childhood in all its diversity. It contains the toys and games of Western Australian children's play, child rearing and schooling items, costume, books and items reflective of home life. The collection, dating from the Seventeenth Century to 2009 is representative of children's lives in different periods, environments, socio-economic circumstances and culturally diverse backgrounds.

This nationally significant collection of 24,000 items is reflective of Western Australian childhood in all its diversity. It was donated to the WA Museum in 2009 by Edith Cowan University. It contains the toys and games of Western Australian children's play, child rearing and schooling items, costume, books and items reflective of home life. The collection is representative of children's lives in different periods, environments, socio-economic circumstances and culturally diverse backgrounds. It contains several collections that are immensely significant in their own right, most particularly the Riley Family Collection. This near complete collection of 150 toys belonged to the six children (b.1887-97) of Perth's first Anglican Archbishop, the Rev C O Riley. It is one of the most complete holdings of a single family collection of toys in Australia and is of national significance. The ECU Museum of Childhood Collection is also noted for its diverse range of improvised items: toys, clothes, school equipment and other childhood items home-made due to economic hardship, isolation, wartime austerity and emergency or for pleasure.

Some material may be subject to copyright.

Available by appointment - http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/about/contact-us

Subjects

Archbishop Charles Owen Riley; ECU Museum of Childhood; Emma Purkis; Mary McKenzie

Books; Childhood; Children; Depression; Education; Games; Improvisation; Infants; Making do; Riley Family Collection; Schooling; The ECU Museum of Childhood Collection; Toys; Western Australian childhood; World War One; World war Two

Books; Clothing; Toys

Children; Costume; Education; Families; Games; Play (Recreation); Toys; World wars

Children's clothing; Children's effects; Children's literature; Domestic life; Education

Coverage Spatial

International; Western Australia

Coverage Temporal

1600

2009

Related Collections

Dates

2012-05-30 23:42

2011-03-25 14:37