America is a culture obsessed with recapturing youth from a physical standpoint. But with many of the problems adults face, they may also be wishing they were a kid again to go back to childhood when things were much simpler.

But with the exhibit "Hide & Seek: Picturing Childhood" at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, co-curator Jane Aspinwall says people might be suffering from a bit of delusional nostalgia.

"Our ideas about childhood have evolved over time, but in some ways, what we want childhood to be and what childhood actually is are very different," she says.

With 46 images taken from the museum's Hallmark Photographic Collection, "Hide & Seek" features the work of 42 photographers, including Lewis Caroll, Helen Levitt, Gloria Baker Feinstein and Springfield, Mo., native Dorothea Lange. The exhibit's photographs go back as far as 1868 and are as recent as 2007, showing the range of emotions and experiences of children in different time periods, conditions, countries and cultures.

Of course, you'll see works that recall youth's fun and innocence. Aspinwall admits that's at least part of what gives the exhibit its appeal. But a closer look and additional images effectively remove a viewer's rose-colored glasses.

A picture of a Ugandan boy at play also shows his extreme poverty. Masked children stand unsupervised on a stoop in New York City's concrete jungle. A little girl stares blankly while being meticulously prepped by parents for a horse show while another young life encounters death in the form of an expired hummingbird.

"For every beautiful, happy, straightforward image, there's usually in the category a kind of edgy image that hopefully forces viewers to kind of go a little bit deeper," Aspinwall says.

The range of emotions that "Hide & Seek: Picturing Childhood" triggers could be numerous for viewers and ultimately could lead to a more well-rounded understanding of a transitional period everyone experiences.

"You see, huh, childhood maybe isn't so easy-going and perfect. It's complicated and it's always been complicated," Aspinwall says.

"Hide & Seek: Picturing Childhood" is on display through Feb. 14. For more information, visit www.nelson-atkins.org.