Children's Furniture
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Charles Sable is curator of decorative arts at The Henry Ford.
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Cradle, 1760-1790
Eighteenth-century parents used cradles to keep babies warm and removed from household dangers. Parents laced babies into cradles to prevent them from falling or crawling out — you can see lacing pegs on this cradle along the top outer edge of the sides. With the baby securely restrained, mothers or other caregivers could go about their daily chores without worry.
Baby Tender, 1800-1850
Highchair, 1790-1800
Child's Fall-front Desk, 1750-1800
Eighteenth-century children had few forms of furniture made specifically for their needs: cradles, highchairs, and perhaps small chairs. This fall-front desk is a rarity. A well-to-do family probably had this made for their young son. Maybe this boy — mimicking his father who sat at a larger version of this desk — would later carry on the family business.
Child's Corner Chair, circa 1775-1790
Little child-sized chairs, though not commonplace, were one of the few forms of furniture made for 18th-century children. A well-to-do family — with enough cash and ample living space — may have had this chair made for their young son.
Cradle, 1850-1900
Child's Hitchcock Chair, 1825-1865
Oil Painting, Portrait of Delia Thayer attributed to Randall Palmer, 1839
Child's Rocking Chair, 1845-1870
By the mid-1800s, rocking chairs became a common household item for young and old. This child-sized version of a Lincoln-type rocking chair helped children model adult behavior in the home. Henry Ford selected this horsehair upholstered rocker to furnish the Sunday parlor in his birthplace — now located in Greenfield Village. He may have remembered a similar one used during his childhood.
Child's Rolltop Desk, circa 1920
Trade Card for Hecker's Buckwheat, Hecker-Jones-Jewell Milling Co., 1893
Baby-jumper and Rocking Chair, 1898-1920
Children in a Yard or a Garden, circa 1925
Twentieth-century parents wanted their babies to explore their world — but to do it safely. This photograph shows a baby in a tender supervised by older children. This tender was not as confining as the early-19th-century one shown above. Today, many parents place their almost-mobile babies in wheeled walkers to help them get around and, hopefully, keep them out of trouble.
The Neuman-Kettler Co. Complete Home Furnishings, "Memories of Childhood," 1910
Christmas Party for Children at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, December 25, 1946
Child's Chair Designed by Ray and Charles Eames, circa 1944
Child's Table, 1956
Advertisement, "Fun-Iture: A Brand New Idea for Children's Furniture," circa 1960
Children's Furniture Made by Fun-Iture Co. Featured in Gimbels Display Window, circa 1960
Fisher-Price Advertisement, "It Took Fisher-Price and 2,043 Mothers to Design a High Chair Like This," 1990
By the time Fisher-Price created this advertisement, highchairs for children had been around for centuries — but the company now claimed it improved on the age-old design. Fisher-Price proudly announced that it had listened to "the experts" — 2,043 moms — when designing this highchair. The company stated that the sturdy and stable chair was easy to use — especially when juggling a baby with one hand — and easy to clean.
