Dinsmore Homestead

The Dinsmore Homestead Foundation will conserve and display their example of The Speaking Picture Book. Dating to 1886-1891, the now rare book contains eight pages of poems about animals and families, each accompanied by beautiful color illustrations. The back of the book contains a system of small bellows, wires, strings, and knobs. When children finished reading a poem, they pulled the appropriate string, which resulted in a coordinating sound. The restoration of this technological toy will connect today's families to those of the past through identifying technological commonalities and will foster an appreciation of nineteenth-century ingenuity, mechanical art, and workers' skills.