The Gilbert Exhibitions

The Eli Whitney Museum collects and studies the products and legacy of A.C. Gilbert and his company. Since 1991, the Museum has held a series of exhibitions celebrating the 20th Century's premiere producer of learning toys. Those exhibitions are listed below.

Sunday, September 22, 1991

A.C. Gilbert and the Tools of Learning

Alfred Carlton Gilbert shared his dreams with America's children. He built a world of learning tools. He encouraged active inquiry and adventurous discovery. The Hall of Science was both a place and an idea: give children the right tools, the children will educate themselves. The Eli Whitney Museum celebrates that vision and achievement. Learn more...

Wednesday, February 8, 1995

Cast of Thousands

A. C. Gilbert sold toys to boys. The boys who received Kastor Kits were most likely 13 to 15 year olds. America had not yet accustomed itself to store-bought toys. Like Gilbert's Erector Set, which had promised to make a hundred toys, the Kastor Kit was a tool. Learn more...

Friday, November 29, 1996

Flyer at 50

1946: The world began to rebuild itself after the devastation and destruction of the second World War. At an age when other men might have begun looking to retirement, A.C. Gilbert set out to add to his immensely popular line of pre-war learning toys. The result was a line of trains redesigned so completely that they bear only the name of the company he purchased in 1939: American Flyer. Learn more...

Saturday, February 8, 1997

Gilbert and the Radio

In 1920, Guglielmo Marconi would broadcast opera on England's first commercial station. Within months, A.C. Gilbert would install a transmitter at his New Haven factory. He was the sixth American to hold a commercial license. His career in radio was brief and yet his radio tower became an enduring passion for technology. Learn more...

Saturday, February 8, 1997

Classical Blocks

Blocks from the Gilbert Company, from the Gilbert Era, from before and after Gilbert. Explore the evolution of materials, styles of connection, styles of instruction. Artifacts from the Museum's collection; the Collections of Steve Olin, Keith Rancourt and others. Learn more...

Sunday, February 8, 1998

Learning Power

1913 was the threshold of the electric age. A.C. Gilbert, age 29, had just conceived a steel construction set. His Erector Set's girders modeled the new trestles and skyscrapers. Almost as an afterthought, Gilbert added the parts to construct a small battery-powered motor. That began a line of experimental motors that would become the heart of the Erector Set. Learn more...

Wednesday, November 18, 1998

Yesterday and Tomorrow

The Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden reaches back to the 1939 World's Fair for it's 14th annual train exhibition. "Yesterday and Tomorrow" boasts scale replicas of some 60 buildings from the famous fair as well as four trains that visitors can control. Learn more...

Friday, November 26, 2004

Eye Contact

A. C. Gilbert graduated from Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School in 1909. Gilbert trained to be a physician just as modern scientific medicine... and the microscope... displaced 19th century practical medicine. Gilbert added microscope kits to his popular lines of Erector and Chemistry sets in 1934. Learn more...

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Champion of Champions

Alfred Gilbert was born in 1884 in Salem, Oregon. About the same time, in Western Germany, Max von Stephanitz began to standardize a breed of yellow and grey wolf-like working dog that would become the German Shepherd. It became an icon of a simpler, purer time. Learn more...