Microscope and Lab Set, Gilbert, ca. 1960
Did you miss National Chemistry Day on the 22nd? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Check out this Gilbert Microscope and Lab Set from 1960! One of A.C. Gilbert’s career-building science sets for children, this set allowed kids to examine specimens under an electric microscope and experiment with different chemicals. Let’s just hope that kids learned some chemistry without creating a disaster…
From the 1920s to the early 1960s, AC Gilbert Company produced chemistry lab sets as educational toys for boys to generate interest in careers in medicine and science. Chemistry sets were so popular by the mid-1950s that most children in America owned one. To increase interest in science (and the sets), Gilbert held contests starting in 1950 which they advertised in the annual Gilbert Toys Catalog. They offered an $100 cash prize to the boy or girl who performed the “most important research in Microscopy or Chemistry.” 1950 was the same year that Gilbert began marketing the sets to girls as well as boys.
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