Educational toys aren’t a new idea. A rare 19th-century Yankee Schoolmaster toy — also known as the Alphabet Man — was offered in a recent auction. The toy was patented in 1884. Push a lever on the ...

Every child has to learn the alphabet before learning to read, so some toys for those under five years old have been “teaching toys.” Blocks were the first. The oldest mention of alphabet blocks was ...

Some celebrities aren't just pretty faces. A few of them are also touched with that Yankee prowess for tinkering and invention. In this weekly series, we introduce you to the Patents of the Rich and ...