About this reference

Kitten's Toy Room is a reference on the manufactured toy: the firms that made them, the buildings they were made in, the materials they were made of, and the legislation that governed both.

Every page is organised around something with a record — a named firm, a dated patent, a material, a statute, a district. Pieces are grouped into five sections: Makers, Materials, Places, People and Standards. The archive lists all twenty-seven.

How the site is arranged

Objects are filed by what they are made of rather than by what they are, which is why there is a Materials section and no Objects section. A teddy bear is found under mohair plush; a Matchbox casting under Zamak; a brick under ABS.

Photographs carry the pages, and each one is captioned with something the picture cannot show. Figures and tables break out beyond the reading measure; the reading measure itself widens on large displays.