Swing:Child's Swing

Ancient cave drawings in Europe, carved figures from Crete, and ceramic vases from Greece depict humans on swings. Though intended for wealthy Europeans in the 18th century, the swing had become the playground favorite of children. The playground movement of the early 1900s put swing sets in public spaces dedicated specifically to children playing together and gave kids from nearby apartments and tenements a healthy place to grow physically, socially, and culturally. Many mid-20th-century Americans had freestanding, family-sized swing sets on sunny suburban lots. After the 1970s, public concern for children's safety urged parents to forsake the tubular metal sets for smaller swings of woods and resins suited to children of different ages and development.