Core77

Sign In / Join Now

Topics
- Product Design
- Process
- Technology
- Lifestyle
- Business
- News
- Furniture
- Tools
- Transportation
- Education
- Impact
- Reference
- Video
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Subscribe
Features
- Features
- Covid19
- Designing Women
- Getting Hired
- Design Files
- True I.D. Stories
- In the Details
- Photo Galleries
- Bizarre Inventions
- Questionnaire
- Materials
- Footwear
- Hand Tool School
- Tools & Craft
Awards
- Awards
- 2020 Core77 Design Awards Results;
Careers
- Careers
- Design Jobs;
- Talent Search;
- Design Salaries;
Firms
- Firms
- Search Firms;
- Firm Projects
Forums
- Forums
- General Discussion
- Students & Schools
- Design Employment
- Sketching
- Software & Technology
- All Forums
More...
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Advertise
- About
- Terms of Use
My Account
- My Account
- Sign In / Join Now
Follow Us
- )
- m
- Y
- '
- S
Search
e

Core77 is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

Toy Design History: Lincoln Logs were designed by...Frank Lloyd Wright's kid, based on a Japanese hotel basement?

By Rain Noe - October 24, 2010

I always assumed Lincoln Logs, the popular notched sticks that are along with Lego part of a child's first foray into architecture, were named for log-cabin-dwelling Abe Lincoln. I couldn't have been more wrong. In fact they were invented by John Lloyd Wright, Frank's kid, who apparently observed the interlocking beams his father had wrought in the basement of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel.

FLW designed the Imperial Hotel's interlocking beams to counter earthquakes (though there is some controversy as to whether it was effective), and John (w)rightly predicted the system would make a great children's toy. He named the logs for FLW's discarded middle name, Lincoln, and they've been selling them since freaking 1918.

o
1

Favorite
Q
2

Comment
&

Toy Design History: Lincoln Logs were designed by...Frank Lloyd Wright's kid, based on a Japanese hotel basement?

conrad brown

9 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

John Lloyd Wright was Frank's second son, not his "kid", goats have kids. Also the Imperial hotel sat on wooden piles not interlocking beams. Log cabins were common in this country, particularly on the frontier in John Lloyd's time. There was no controversy about the effectiveness of wood piles under the Imperial. It stood relatively unfazed while nearly all else Tokyo was leveled by a quake months after the hotel was finished.
!Report as spam
SWPU

9 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

You may be missing the pun. The logs are linkin' because they link.
!Report as spam

Share your thoughts

Rain Noe

I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.