Theresa Caplan

Lore & Background

Theresa Caplan was born on 6 June 1912. During World War II, while living in northern Manhattan, New York City, she and her husband Frank founded a workshop on 95th Street to manufacture and sell wooden toys. War shortages increased their profits, as wooden toys were rare, and the high quality of their toys spread by word of mouth. In 1949, they named the business 'Creative Playthings', which operated until its sale in 1966.

As the business expanded, the Caplans traveled worldwide to find models for their crafts. By the 1980s, they had accumulated more than fifty thousand individual toys as models, gradually seeing themselves as collectors. Their international work and collection allowed them to produce a display featured at the United Nations Headquarters for the International Year of the Child in 1979.

In 1984, while living in Princeton, New Jersey, the Caplans donated their collection to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The collection was so massive that the museum needed nine months to unpack the thirty-two crates used to transport it. After Frank's death in 1988, Theresa recalled being more active in collecting for a time, but noted the collection truly expanded after 1966, when the business sale freed Frank from financial concerns. Theresa died on April 13, 2010, at age ninety-seven.

Reader's Guide

Theresa Caplan's significance lies in her dual role as a scholar of early childhood development and a pioneering collector of global toys. With her husband Frank, she authored books such as The First Twelve Months of Life, which studied children's play patterns and even compared infant behavior to adult trade unions. Their business, Creative Playthings, grew from a single small store into a notable manufacturer during World War II, capitalizing on the scarcity of wooden toys. The Caplans' collection of over 50,000 toys, built through international travel and meticulous record-keeping, was donated to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis in 1984. Theresa's detailed cataloging—using twenty thousand index cards filling twenty-eight shoe boxes—ensured each object had a unique identifier and country of origin. This collection, displayed at the United Nations in 1979, remains a lasting resource for understanding global play and childhood development.

Did You Know?

• Theresa Caplan's records for the toy collection filled twenty-eight shoe boxes with twenty thousand index cards.
• The Caplans' toy collection required thirty-two crates and nine months to unpack at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
• During World War II, the Caplans' wooden toy business profited from war shortages because wooden toys were rare.

The Creative Playthings Workshop

During the Second World War, Theresa and her husband Frank established a modest workshop on 95th Street in northern Manhattan, New York City, where they handcrafted and sold wooden toys for young children. From the earliest days of the venture, Theresa was deeply embedded in its daily operations—greeting customers, answering questions, and managing sales while Frank focused on completing their orders. The wartime context inadvertently worked in their favor: with wooden toys scarce across the country due to material shortages, the couple's high-quality handmade pieces became highly sought after. Word-of-mouth recommendations spread quickly, and their small shop grew into a significantly larger business. In 1949, they formalized the operation under the name Creative Playthings, which they continued to run until selling the company in 1966. As the enterprise expanded, the couple began traveling to various countries to source design models for their crafts, a practice that would gradually transform their professional identity from toy manufacturers into passionate collectors.

Building a Global Collection

What began as a practical need to source design models for their toy workshop gradually evolved into one of the most extraordinary private assemblages of children's playthings in the world. By the 1980s, Theresa and Frank had gathered more than fifty thousand individual toys representing cultures from across the globe. The international scope of both their manufacturing work and their collecting meant they could curate a display of remarkable breadth and diversity. In 1979, they independently produced an exhibition that was installed at United Nations Headquarters in New York as part of the International Year of the Child, showcasing the global richness of childhood play. In 1984, while residing in Princeton, New Jersey, the couple made the decision to donate their entire collection to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The sheer scale of the gift was staggering: thirty-two crates were required to transport the objects, and museum staff needed a full nine months simply to unpack and process the arrival.

Scholarship on Early Childhood Development

Beyond their hands-on work with toys, Theresa and Frank were committed scholars of early childhood development. Together they authored multiple well-regarded books that examined how children engaged in play—whether in solitary or group settings, and across different stages of growth. One notable volume, The First Twelve Months of Life, focused primarily on infant development but also incorporated observations of two-year-olds and drew comparisons with adult trade unions, reflecting the couple's interest in understanding play as a fundamental human activity across the lifespan. Their writing was grounded in direct observation and practical experience, informed by decades of watching children interact with the very toys they had helped design and manufacture. This scholarly dimension gave their work an academic rigor that distinguished them from mere toy makers or collectors, positioning them as serious contributors to the field of child development in the twentieth century.

A Meticulous Record-Keeper and Her Final Years

Those who knew Theresa described her as enthusiastic and extroverted, yet her most defining personal trait was an almost obsessive dedication to documentation. She insisted that every single object in the collection receive a unique identifier and that its country of origin be carefully recorded. Every shipping box was individually labeled and tracked. Her meticulous notes were written across twenty thousand index cards, which by the time of the donation filled twenty-eight shoe boxes. After Frank's death in 1988 at the age of seventy-seven, Theresa reflected that she had been the more active collector for a period, though she acknowledged the collection truly accelerated after 1966, when the sale of Creative Playthings freed Frank from the pressures of financial management. Theresa herself passed away in Princeton, New Jersey, on 13 April 2010, at the age of ninety-six, leaving behind a legacy that continues to serve researchers, educators, and the general public through the museum that now houses her life's work.

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