Frank Caplan

Lore & Background

Frank Caplan was born in Kingston upon Hull, England, to Russian Jewish parents. His family immigrated to the United States in 1914 and settled in Harlem, New York. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1927 and attended City College of New York at night, earning a bachelor's degree in sociology and history in 1931. He then took a job as director of the Block Recreation Project, working with street gangs to create club centers for leadership training. His interest in toys began while working as one of the first male nursery school teachers in the U.S. under Caroline Pratt at City and Country School in Greenwich Village. Later, at the Jewish Center in Far Rockaway, Long Island, he made puppets and simple playthings for children alongside his future wife, Theresa, and artist Mark Rothko. In 1934, he set up a cooperative farm-camp for city children. He married Theresa Caplan on May 30, 1934, and received his master's degree in the Philosophy of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1936. He then worked as Senior Project Supervisor of the Works Progress Administration Youth Service Division of the New York City Board of Education.

Reader's Guide

Frank Caplan's significance lies in his multifaceted contributions to childhood education and play. As co-founder of Creative Playthings in 1945, he helped transform the toy industry by collaborating with notable artists and architects to produce educational play objects and playground designs. The company became a leading supplier for early childhood education by the 1950s. His later work through The Princeton Center for Infancy and Early Childhood, founded in 1975, produced a bestselling series of books co-authored with Theresa Caplan, including The First Twelve Months of Life and The Power of Play, which provided practical guidance for parents and embraced diverse family types. Additionally, the Caplans' collection of over 50,000 folk toys, donated to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis in 1984, created a permanent gallery that preserves global play traditions. His legacy endures through the integration of thoughtful design and developmental research into toys and parenting resources.

Did You Know?

• He co-founded Creative Playthings in 1945 with his wife Theresa.
• The Caplans donated over 50,000 folk toys, folk art, and contemporary playthings to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis in 1984.
• He worked with artist Mark Rothko at the Jewish Center in Far Rockaway, Long Island.

Roots in Harlem and a Lifelong Commitment to Children

Frank Caplan was born on June 10, 1911, in Kingston upon Hull, England, to Russian Jewish parents. His family emigrated to the United States in 1914 and settled in Harlem, New York. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1927 and then studied sociology and history at City College of New York, attending classes at night. His early professional life was devoted to youth work: as director of the Block Recreation Project, he collaborated with street gangs to establish club centers for leadership training. A pivotal moment arrived when he became one of the first male nursery school teachers in the nation, working under Caroline Pratt at the City and Country School in Greenwich Village. At the Jewish Center in Far Rockaway, Long Island, he and his future wife Theresa, along with the artist Mark Rothko, handmade puppets and simple playthings for children. In 1934 he organized a cooperative farm-camp for city kids and married Theresa on May 30 of that year. He earned a master's degree in the Philosophy of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1936, then assumed a senior supervisory role in the WPA Youth Service Division of the New York City Board of Education, where he designed programs for sixteen- to twenty-five-year-olds in economically distressed neighborhoods.

Creative Playthings and a Circle of Visionaries

In 1945, Frank and Theresa Caplan co-founded Creative Playthings, a company dedicated to designing and manufacturing educational toys for young children. What set the enterprise apart was its extraordinary roster of collaborators: the couple worked alongside sculptor Isamu Noguchi, architect Louis Kahn, sculptor Henry Moore, designer Robert Winston, and Swiss toymaker Antonio Vitali to produce innovative play objects and playground designs that blended artistic vision with pedagogical purpose. By the 1950s, the company had achieved international recognition and expanded into one of the leading suppliers of early childhood educational materials. The enterprise's success reflected Frank's deep conviction, forged during his years as a nursery school teacher and youth worker, that the objects children interact with shape their cognitive and social development. Rather than treating toys as mere entertainment, the Caplans approached each design as a learning tool, drawing on the creative sensibilities of world-class artists and architects to craft objects that invited exploration, problem-solving, and imaginative play. This philosophy positioned Creative Playthings at the forefront of a movement to elevate the educational value of play in both classroom and home settings.

The Princeton Center and a New Approach to Parenting

In 1975, Frank and Theresa Caplan co-founded The Princeton Center for Infancy and Early Childhood, a pioneering organization that produced research-based books and pamphlets aimed at both parents and professionals. Through the center they authored The Parenting Advisor (1977), Parents' Yellow Pages (1978), and Growing Up Years: Your Child's Record Keeping Book (1978). Their most celebrated work came as a co-authored national bestselling series: The Power of Play (1973), The First Twelve Months of Life (1977), The Second Twelve Months of Life (1978), and The Early Childhood Years: The 2 to 6 Year Old (1983). These volumes traced mental, physical, language, and social development across the earliest years of life, offering practical guidance and addressing common parental concerns. Critics and readers alike praised the series for its inclusive tone, explicitly welcoming fathers as well as mothers and acknowledging diverse family structures. The Caplans' writing reflected decades of hands-on experience with children, from their nursery school days in Greenwich Village to their years designing educational play objects, and it helped establish a more accessible, evidence-informed voice in early childhood literature.

The Caplan Collection and a Lasting Gift

Beginning in the 1950s, Frank and Theresa Caplan gathered folk toys during their numerous international travels. What started as casual collecting gradually evolved into a deliberate, large-scale effort to amass folk toys, folk art, and contemporary playthings from around the world, driven by their dream of establishing a Museum of Fantasy and Play. In 1984, the couple donated their collection of more than 50,000 objects to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, where it became a permanent gallery dedicated to folk, fantasy, and play. The holdings, now known as the Caplan Collection, were first showcased in the exhibit Passport to the World. Frank Caplan passed away on September 28, 1988, and Theresa followed on April 13, 2010. They are survived by their daughter, Judith Inglese, and son, Richard Caplan. The enduring presence of the Caplan Collection in one of the nation's leading children's museums stands as a testament to a couple who believed that the small, handcrafted objects of childhood carry profound cultural and developmental significance, and who dedicated their lives to ensuring those objects reached the next generation of young explorers.

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