The Strong National Museum of Play, also called The Strong Museum or simply the Strong, is part of The Strong in Rochester, New York, United States. It was started in 1969 and originally based on the personal collection of Margaret Woodbury Strong, a person from Rochester. The museum opened to the public in 1982 after many years of planning, organizing, and creating exhibits 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, under the leadership of H.J. Swinney and William T. Alderson. Mrs. Strong’s collection of dolls, toys, American and European decorative arts, prints, paintings, Japanese crafts, and small items from advertising provided a strong base for this goal. The museum added more items from purchases and donations to better support its early mission. It received much local and national attention and support, as well as significant 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 collecting, preserving, and explaining the history of play. Since then, the museum has improved and grown its collections (hundreds of thousands of items) and expanded three times, in 1997, 2006, and 2023.
The museum is now 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. It also produces the American Journal of Play.
About
The museum was first called the "Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum" and later the "Strong Museum." In 2006, after completing renovations and an expansion that made it almost twice as big, reaching 282,000 square feet (26,200 m²), it became the "Strong National Museum of Play."
The National Museum of Play is the only museum in the world that focuses entirely on studying play. Although it is a history museum, it has interactive features similar to a children’s museum, making it the second-largest of that type in the United States. The museum includes exhibits that explain the importance of play and allow visitors to explore worlds like 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 was created in partnership with the Berenstain family.
In 2019, the museum received a $700,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create an interactive space showing how video games influence culture. The exhibit was planned to open in 2022 but was delayed. In July 2023, new expansions were completed, 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, with a final cost of $75,000,000.
On November 10, 2023, the "War Toys: Ukraine" exhibit opened at the museum. This display highlighted Russian war crimes during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. It was the first museum in North America to host this exhibition. The exhibit remained open until March 16, 2024.
The Strong is honored to be the first museum to host the War Toys: Ukraine exhibition. This exhibit is a call to action, raising awareness about the lasting impact of armed conflict on the youngest among us. It will serve as a testament to the resilience of these children and a reminder that we must stand with them in solidarity.
— Steve Dubnik, president & CEO of The Strong, on https://www.museumofplay.org/press-release/war-toys-ukraine-now-open/