The importance of miniatures in human history and culture
Many of us use miniatures as a way to create the tiny scenes that we dream of creating but don’t have the space, time, or money to do at full scale. Some of us use miniatures to connect with our inner child and allow them to come out and play! But how do miniatures play an important role in our daily lives? How important are they to current human culture and history?
As it turns out, very important! Some of the first miniatures ever used date back to Egyptian tombs around 6,000 BCE. Fast forward to 1600 and miniatures began to become popular in Europe as collectibles, each piece was made with a high level of skilled craftsmanship and extreme attention to detail. They called them “baby houses” or “cabinet houses”. They eventually come to be used to teach servants about the workings of the house. Women began teaching their daughters about housekeeping in the same way. Fast forward again and women let their children play with the houses. So the modern dollhouse was born.
Nowadays miniatures are frequently used in education to teach children about science and really anything that can be represented physically. I remember making a miniature model of the solar system in elementary school - it spanned the entire 3rd grade hallway and each group of students was responsible for creating a planet and representing its size in a scale that matched, so that we could learn about how different he sizes of each planet truly are.
I have complied a short list of different uses of miniatures that I found in my research. Some of these may be obvious, while others may be new to you. I’ve included links to all my sources so that you can read more if you are interested. I was going to include pictures, but I urge you to check out the articles and videos I have linked. You can see visuals of everything there.
Board and Tabletop Games
This one is probably the most obvious. Games have always been known for using tiny figurines - and they have been for over 60 years. One of the oldest board games I could find to include miniature people is The Battle of Little Big Horn in which you can relive the Battle of Little Bighorn in miniature style. Ask anyone and they could probably name at least 3 board games they have played that include miniatures, one of my favorites being Clue.
Solving Crime
A woman in the early 1900s, Frances Glessner Lee (Smithsonian article), began making miniature replicas of crime scenes in attempt to help solve the crimes - and these miniature models are still used for forensic education today. Click here for a detailed documentary on YouTube talking about this amazing woman and how she has changed forensic investigation forever! This is the most interesting piece of miniature history I feel that I have ever stumbled across that is still impacting our lives strongly today.
Stop Motion Animation
Stop motion began back before video cameras were invented. The oldest stop motion films were back in the early 1900s and they are still making stop motion films to this day. A couple of my favorites are the “Wallace and Gromit” movies and of course, “Chicken Run”. I also follow a few on social media: The Tiny Chef Show (YouTube), Tweedy and Fluff (YouTube), and Adventures of Ghostie (their website). The first few episodes of “South Park” were made with construction paper and stop motion animation (evolution video here). Stop motion is still a part of our culture today and is such a fascinating, detailed, and time consuming art that impresses me all the time.
Art & Cultural Representations
Artists throughout time have used miniatures to express what they are visualizing in their heads. A few amazing examples:
Magic Town at the Michael Garman Museum & Gallery. Michael Garman created an entire miniature town that represents pieces of humanity that he experienced along his life’s travels. He used mirrors and special effects to create something that truly seems magical. Watch a tour of Magic Town on YouTube and read about the creator on their website.
An artist named Michael Paul Smith created a 1950s utopian miniature town called Elgin Park that was based on stories and moments in his childhood. His creations went viral and he became famous for them - watch a short documentary about him from National Geographic here.
Frank Wong created an extremely detailed miniature models of his childhood memories of San Fransisco Chinatown back in the 1940s. He spent four decades creating these scenes! There was a documentary made about his story, and you can peek at some of his scenes in the YouTube trailer for the documentary here.
Architectural Models
Miniatures have been used in architecture in many different ways.
They have been used to build representations of what can or will be built in the future so that people can better visualize what the final result may be like. An example is the Grand Staircase in the White House. The architect first created a model of the planned staircase before building it to get a better idea of what it looks like. He was responsible for redesigning the East Wing (source).
They have been used to model anything that is now demolished or deteriorated, so that we can remember and preserve parts of human history that are physically disappearing. A good example of this is the Greek Parthenon. Many people have created miniature models of what is once looked like and what it looks like today. You can download and 3D print some of them for free!
I’m sure I could go on for a long time listing ways that miniatures have been important in human history and today. I didn’t even get into the most famous dollhouses in the world! I’ll leave that for another blog.
Next time someone tries to poke fun at your obsession of and love of miniatures, show them some of these awesome and important creations. You may just blow their mind - and get them interested in miniatures!
Comment below with anything that you have seen or heard of that I have missed here! I’d love to hear your input and see more on this topic.
Happy creating,
Gabby Urbanavage
