Student-curated exhibit explores the history of toys and play

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campus experience 1:47 Student-curated exhibit explores the history of toys and play

By:

Chase Parker

17 Nov 2025 202

Fun From All Ages is a new student-curated exhibit created by Vibeka JensenOyaski, who works in Special Collections and University Archives. Located on the first floor of Newman Library, the display highlights the history of toys, games, and play across generations, inviting visitors to rediscover the joy and nostalgia of childhood. Curated just in time for the holidays, the exhibit will remain on display throughout the season for the campus and community to enjoy.

This exhibit is titled Fun From All Ages. It's a play on the words fun for all ages, but since it's a selection of various historical toys and games, it was a fun title. Whenever I go through like Walmart, I go into the toy section because I feel like the toys these days have gotten so creative and they have all these things that they didn't have when I was a kid, and so I wanted to go into the past. Most of them are from the early 1900s or there's some from the 1800s. We have a couple that are from like the 80s or the 90s. I don't know how you could not see themes that tie this into the holiday season. The holiday season, especially from the time that we're kids, it's about the toys. A lot of these toys are things that like I feel like I unwrapped when I was a kid. They're so similar to what I like used to do and what I think a lot of the kids nowadays are unwrapping. We've always been kind of really similar and the kids are like the same now as they were. This type of experience offers a student essentially a look into the profession itself. Working on this exhibit, Wiebke, just as part of a student job, a student assistant position here at the library, is gaining the same type of experience that she would have in an entry-level position within archives. Definitely a lot of the guidance I've gotten has helped me create this exhibit and put things together and also be confident enough to do all of this work and then put it out into the public.