A cube-shaped wooden box (a) with one edge detached (b) containing a set of Froebel blocks (set #5): 48 unpainted small, precision-cut children's building blocks (c-xx) in the shapes of cubes, planks, and triangular prisms. Sides of box each consist of a single thin slab of wood. Bottom is made of two narrower slabs. Two sides have grooves at top edge to hold a sliding lid (lid is missing). Box is held together with nails. The set has a German label identifying it as a product of the Berlin manufacturer Hugo Bretsch, "makers of Froebel-designed toys and activity materials for home and Kindergarten." The set contains 12 1" cubes, 12 1/2-inch planks, 6 rods, 6 large prisms, and 12 small prisms. Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) was a German early-education theorist who helped to spread the idea that young children learn through play. (It's he who introduced the concept of "Kindergarten.") The Hugo Bretsch company was active in the 1880s, and possibly earlier and/or later, in Berlin. The set of blocks comes from the Allen House and was presumably used at the Allen School--one instance of the Allen School's adoption of progressive practices in early-childhood education. A label pasted to one side of box reads: "kommt, laesst und unsern Kindern leben! / Fabrik u. Lager / saemtlicher Froebel'scher Spiel- / und Beschaeftigungsmittel / fuer Haus- und Kingergaerten / von / HUGO BRETSCH / Kommandantenstr. 85 / am Doenhofsplatz. / 5te Gabe."
