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First & Familiar Favorites

Contents

Introduction

First & Familiar Favorites

Little Hands

Moving Parts

Trivia & General Knowledge

Additional Resources

Do you have a favorite game? Maybe it’s a nostalgic board game from your grandmother’s basement, a rowdy card game from your college days, or the challenging weekly trivia at your local pub. Like today, games of the 19th and early 20th centuries were appreciated by all ages.
During the 19th century, the emerging idea of childhood, children’s rights movements, and an emphasis on children’s education coincided with improvements in printing technology, most notably chromolithography, which enabled large-scale manufacturing of games and toys with a ready-made consumer audience. In addition to fulfilling a need for entertainment and play, they also taught life skills and morality lessons.
Most of the games displayed here will be familiar: a deck of playing cards, a puzzle, and Old Maid. Board games of today can trace their origins to Mansions of Happiness. First published in the United States in the 1840s, this was the first true board game in America.
"Panama Souvenir Playing Cards." Turquoise box. One card depicts Panama ca. 1908. Back of the cards has an image of a road bordered with palm trees. Front of cards have industrial images, such as "Abandoned French Machinery."
Columbian Souvenir Playing Card Co. deck of cards. World's Fair edition. Card box, stack of cards face down, yellow Joker card, and three spades stacked in order.

Panama Souvenir Playing Cards: Gold Edges. Cincinnati: The U.S. Playing Card Company. 1910. | Columbian Souvenir Playing Cards. Chicago: G.W. Clark. 1893.

Cover for the game "Dissected Map of the United States." Three children standing in front of a map of the United States with Uncle Sam pointing at it from above.
The board game "Dissected Map of the United States." Map of the U.S. split into large sections, with the Gulf of Mexico piece pulled out.

Dissected Map of the United States. Springfield: Milton Bradley Co. Circa 1900.

The game "Old Maid and Old Bachelor" opened to show the cover of the box, the instructions, and five of the cards featuring cartoons of "Miss Ideal Sentiment," "Miss Everlasting Piano Thumper," "Mr. Greathead Inventor," "Mr. Fish Story Teller," and "The Old Maid."

The Game of Old Maid and Old Bachelor. New York: McLoughlin Bros. 1892.

Cover of the "Mansions of Happiness" board game.
The board game "Mansion of Happiness." Numbered spiral board with spots labeled "Honesty, "Poverty," A drunkard," and more. Final spot in the center features a circular image of women in an elaborate garden.

Mansions of Happiness. Salem: S. B. Ives. Boston: D.P. Ives & Co. 1864.

Introduction
Little Hands