Architect, collector, writer, curator, and dealer of eccentric and historical art and design, Norman Brosterman first became interested in the history of kindergarten while assembling the world's finest collection of antique building blocks and construction toys, which was acquired by the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal in 1989. His award-winning book, Inventing Kindergarten, on the history of kindergarten and its influence on the development of abstract art and modern architecture, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1997. Part of his collection of historical kindergarten artifacts was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and displayed in their 2012 exhibit, Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000.

Brosterman has collected old visions of the future, which the Smithsonian traveled in 2000 as the exhibit, Out of Time: Designs for the 20th Century Future, antique Japanese ikebana baskets, some of which were on display in 2016 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and 1930’s Japanese propaganda kimonos, examples of which are now in the collections of the Met, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the St. Louis Art Museum.