How do children decide what to be when they grow up? Toys entertain, but also suggest aspirational, gender-specific adult roles.

How do children decide what to be when they grow up? Toys entertain, but also suggest aspirational, gender-specific adult roles. In today's terms, you have to "see it to be it."

The Center for Women's History's new installation features hand-made and mass-printed paper dolls from the 1850s to the present that highlight how norms about women’s work have changed. Cheap, colorful, and marketed to girls, paper dolls exploded in popularity in the late 1800s as new technologies lowered printing costs. They circulated in magazines, newspapers, and advertisements across North America and Europe. Plastic dolls overtook their popularity when Barbie entered the market in the 1950s.

Exhibitions at New-York Historical are made possible by Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, the Saunders Trust for American History, the Evelyn & Seymour Neuman Fund, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. WNET is the media sponsor.