NHAHS Display Celebrates Toys Of Yesteryear

Shortly after Thanksgiving 2022, Lou Ann Miller, who coordinates the displays for the New Holland Area Historical Society (NHAHS) Museum, began clearing out an exhibit to make room for a collection of metal toys produced by J. Chein & Company beginning in 1903. The display overflows two cases into two smaller additional displays. Miller wanted the toys to be on exhibit for children and parents who visited during the holidays, but the colorful pieces of children's playthings collected by Liz Bicking and her late husband, Lawrence, will be on display into the spring and maybe the summer.

Before setting up the exhibit, Miller researched the toy manufacturer, which was started in Manhattan by Julius Chein, an immigrant from Russia of Jewish descent. The company made small, metal stamped toys, which at first were hand painted. "Later it was lithographs," said Miller, an artist herself, who called the artwork and lithographs "beautiful."

The company grew quickly, moving to Harrison, N.J., in 1907 and boasting 300 employees by 1913. J. Chein's marketing and distribution brought the company into notable associations that propelled it forward, including an exclusive partnership with F. W. Woolworth and a contract to put small metal toys, such as whistles, in boxes of Cracker Jacks.

The Chein company was known for toys such as sand buckets and funnels, but by 1915, Julius had acquired a patent for a bank that flashed the amount of a deposited coin when it was slipped through the slot. The company also produced extra-large toys in its Hercules line, which Miller said were heavy gauge and up to 18 inches long.

When Julius died in 1926, his wife, Elizabeth, became president, but by 1931, the company was struggling. Enter Samuel Hoffman, Elizabeth's brother and founder of a competing toy manufacturer. Miller expressed her admiration for the toys produced during Hoffman's stint running the company, noting that the plant made metal Easter rabbits and chicks, spinning tops, and spring-wound toys during that time period.

In 1942, the company aided the World War II effort by making war materials such as munitions and casings for incendiary devices. The first items the organization produced in 1946 utilized a bazooka rocket nose cone repurposed into a bank.

By the 1960s, the company was producing metal toys emblazoned with likenesses of Charles Schulz's Peanuts characters. "(The display) traces the history of toys," noted Miller, who pointed out that America's changing taste in playthings for children is reflected inthe exhibit. Facing competition from plastic toys and criticism from the Consumer Product Safety Commission for sharp edges on some toys, J. Chein eventually gave up toy making and became Chein Industries, producing housewares into the 1990s.

The museum, which is located at 207 E. Main St., New Holland, is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Tuesday and Saturday or by appointment by calling 717- 538-3079.