Toys within the collections of selected Cieszyn Silesia museums as a source of knowledge of the former ludic culture of the youngest inhabitants of the region

Abstract

The aim of the article is to familiarize the readers with the collections of toys gathered in selected museums of Cieszyn Silesia and to consider their role in the cognition of the former forms of entertainment of the youngest inhabitants of this region. The study is based on visits and queries conducted from May to September 2018 in the ethnography departments of three institutions: The Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Cieszyn, the Jan Jarocki Museum in Ustroń and Muzeum Těšínska in Český Těšín, as well as interviews with museum personnel employed by these institutions. The article does not include detailed characteristics of the entire inventory of toys in any of these facilities. The purpose is to signal the problems that must be considered by any researcher attempting to draw inferences on the topic of the former ludic culture of children in a given region, on the basis of sources available in museums.