Children's Dreams. Playing - Living - Learning around 1900

Dollhouses and shops are fascinating to people of all ages due to their richness of detail. As scenes of idealised living environments, these miniatures offer exciting discoveries, because they contain more "reality" than it may seem at first glance. Especially since the 19th century, childen's dreams to try on on adult roles became possible. This prepared them for their later tasks in life: part of it are the traditional gender roles of girls as housewives and boys as soldiers, as well as storage management, preparation of food, using kitchen utensils, retail and selling. Toy shops and pharmacies don't just exhibit the typical assortment of goods that was available to the rising demand of middle-class households at the time. They also provide us with information about the brands and products on offer and inform us about societal topics such as infrastructure, hygiene, health, industrialisation, and colonialism. The exhibition "Children's Dreams" shows an extensive selection of historial doll kitchens and miniature shops from a private collection. With countless historical toy miniatures and original objects, it provides a multifaceted image of playing, living and learning in the 19th century. A special focus is placed on the time period from the 1870s to the 1920s.

For more information on this exhibition, please visit https://www.rem-mannheim.de/ausstellungen/sonderausstellungen/kindertraeume/