The Strong National Museum of Play, also called The Strong Museum or simply the Strong, is located in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1969 and originally based on the personal collection of Margaret Woodbury Strong, a native of Rochester. The museum opened to the public in 1982 after several years of planning, organizing, and preparing for its new building in downtown Rochester.
For at least fifteen years after it opened, the museum’s goal was to explain the social and cultural history of everyday Americans from 1830 to 1940. This work was led by H.J. Swinney and William T. Alderson. Mrs. Strong’s collection of dolls, toys, American and European decorative arts, prints, paintings, Japanese crafts, and advertising materials formed the foundation for this mission. Additional items were added through purchases and donations to better support the museum’s early purpose. The museum received significant local and national attention and funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Exhibitions and Public Programs division.
In the 1990s, the museum’s Board of Trustees and director changed its mission to collect, preserve, and explain the history of play. Since then, the museum has grown its collection to include hundreds of thousands of items and expanded its space three times—in 1997, 2006, and 2023.
Today, the museum is one of six Play Partners of The Strong. It is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame, the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play. The museum also publishes the American Journal of Play.
About
The museum was first called the "Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum" and later named the "Strong Museum." In 2006, after completing renovations and expanding its space, it became the "Strong National Museum of Play." The expansion increased its size to 282,000 square feet (26,200 m²).
The National Museum of Play is the only museum in the world that focuses entirely on the study of play. While it is a history museum, it includes interactive features similar to a children's museum, making it the second-largest museum of that type in the United States. The museum has exhibits that explain the importance of play and allow visitors to explore areas inspired by Sesame Street, The Berenstain Bears, Reading Adventureland, and the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden.
The museum’s exhibits are designed to look like video games, storybooks, television shows, education, nature, history, comic books, carousel and train rides, and children’s lifestyles. The eGameRevolution exhibit is the first permanent video game display in the United States and includes the World Video Game Hall of Fame. The National Toy Hall of Fame is also located at the museum. The Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden has thousands of butterflies and is the largest indoor butterfly garden in New York. The Berenstain Bears: Down a Sunny Dirt Road exhibit is a permanent display created in partnership with the Berenstain family.
In 2019, The Strong Museum received a $700,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create an interactive exhibit showing how video games influence culture. The exhibit was planned to open in 2022 but faced delays. In July 2023, the museum opened new areas, including the ESL Digital Worlds exhibit, a new space for the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and the Hasbro Game Park, an outdoor area themed around board games. These additions added 90,000 square feet (8,400 m²) of space at a total cost of $75,000,000.
On November 10, 2023, the "War Toys: Ukraine" exhibit, which highlights Russian war crimes during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing conflict, opened at The Strong Museum as part of a tour across North American museums. The exhibit remained open until March 16, 2024.