A Nation Born: Toys, Games, Music, Everyday Life

1783 to 1861, period appropriate products from Cowings Mill.

The Constitution was adopted, and the famous Lewis & Clark Expedition traveled overland to the Pacific Coast to explore the new Louisiana Territory. With the end of the War of 1812, Americans began to see themselves as a fully realized nation. Manufactured goods were plentiful, even for children. In 1844 there were 88 toy stores in New York alone. Trade ads included harmonicas (as early as 1833), graces hoops, jaw harps, solitaire and morris boards, cup & ball (bilboquet), and toy guns, among others.

Territorial expansion led to wagon trains of emigrant families making the long trek west to the Pacific. They carried only what they needed, and once again children made playthings from whatever was at hand, imitating what they had at home or what they saw among the Native Americans along the trails. Music heard around the campfires gave an air of home to the journey.

In the east, industry and the cities began to thrive. Newly developed transportation systems, such as the Erie Canal and the early railroads, spurred the movement of trade goods as well as settlers.

While the Underground Railroad and the continued fight for women's rights illuminated the face of reform in America, the devastation of native American tribes and the expansion of slavery in some territories continued to cast a long shadow.

Our products are either reproductions, interpretations, or adaptations of historical periods items. We'll make a separate blog post on those definitions, but for now we'll say that each Cowings Mill product is packaged with information placing it in appropriate time periods. In this timeline, Pilgrims and Patriots, the only product that would not have been seen as a version of what we know today is the harmonica, which was invented in this form in 1821.