Rubber Duckie used by Ernie on Sesame Street: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Ernie, one of the main characters of the children’s television program Sesame Street, enjoys taking bubble baths with this rubber duck toy. He often sings the song “Rubber Duckie” about his beloved rubber duckie. The song was released as a single and peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 26, 1970.

Sesame Street (1969-present) is the longest-running children’s television series in American history, and one of the most influential and impactful programs in the history of the medium. First developed by producer Joan Ganz Cooney to use all the entertaining tools of commercial television to teach preschool aged children, the series was also a notable effort to use public television to reach minority and low-income communities who otherwise lacked educational opportunities. The series combines live action sequences set in a Harlem-like neighborhood of urban brownstones and small businesses with animated segments, catchy modern music, popular culture parodies, and integrates Jim Henson’s Muppets, a memorable mélange of entertaining scenes that have made Sesame Street a favorite of children and parents alike. Sesame Street is a production of Sesame Workshop (known before 2000 as the Children’s Television Workshop) and premiered on the National Educational Television (NET) network in 1969 before that early educational broadcaster transitioned to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 1970. Since 2016, Sesame Street has aired new episodes on HBO although reruns still air on PBS.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: ca. 1969
• date made: 1970s
• Object Name: Duck, Toy
• Physical Description: rubber (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 4 in x 4 in; 10.16 cm x 10.16 cm
• related object association proper name: Sesame Street
• general subject association: Television
• Subject: Children's television programs
• Subject: Television broadcasts
• Subject: Children's television programs
• ID Number: 1979.0952.02
• accession number: 1979.0952
• catalog number: 1979.0952.02
• Credit Line: Gift of Children's Television Workshop (through Robert A. Hatch)
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.