Structo Toy Tractor: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The Structo High-Wheel Tractor was produced by Structo Manufacturing Company of Freeport, Illinois. It was a generic lightweight tractor model and came with an attached trailer. Founded in 1908, Structo made toy construction sets before selling the patents to A.C. Gilbert Company, the well-known manufacturer of ERECTOR sets. Structo then started manufacturing “Auto-Builder” kits, including the High-Wheel Tractor, that children could assemble into working models. One advertisement proclaimed, “Build a racing car, a classy, roadster-type car, a big, strong truck or a dandy farm tractor.” Structo also made “Ready-Built” toys that required no assembly. In the early 20th century, mechanical toys were popular for boys. These toys celebrated technological advances and were supposed to be a boy’s first step toward a prosperous career in a new world of machines. Structo’s tagline was, “Structo Toys Make Men of Boys.” Companies advertised these toys in magazines targeted at boys or their fathers, such as Boys’ Life, Youth’s Companion, and Popular Mechanics.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1920 - 1929
• Object Name: toy tractor
• Object Name: tractor, toy
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 6 in x 7 in x 11 1/2 in; 15.24 cm x 17.78 cm x 29.21 cm
• ID Number: AG.19A01.1
• catalog number: 19A01.1
• accession number: 64098
• Credit Line: Gift of the Toy Manufacturers of the United States, New York, New York
• 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.