by Bruce Whitehill
Toy Shop, October 1997
Once upon a time in a land far, far away…
Games have been used for education and recreation by children and adults for thousands of years. A gameboard from the game of SENAT was discovered in 1922 in the tomb of King Tut where it had been buried for over 5000 years. The earliest games, known as MANCALA or WARI, are thought to be even older, dating as far back as 5000 B.C.; variations of some of these MANCALA games are still played in many places, especially in Africa. These earliest games, though difficult to date, are worth a considerable amount–as folk art and archeological treasures, rather than games.
Identifying the earliest dates and countries of origin for ancient games is difficult because these games have evolved over the centuries; sometimes the modern successor bears little resemblance to its early ancestor. In looking for origins, historians examine implements and play patterns in an attempt to determine if the movement of playing pieces in a particular early game suggests that the game is the antecedent of a more modern one.
Classic games are ones that have been played around the world for generations, in one form or other: CHECKERS, called DRAUGHTS in England, dates back to the 12th century; CHESS was said to have originated either in India in 600 A.D. or China before 200 A.D.; and backgammon, a variation of a game called TABULA (known as CHASING THE GIRLS in Iceland), goes back to the 1st century. DOMINOES, another world favorite, has a more clouded beginning: it is probably Chinese, its origin being between the 1st and 12th centuries; DOMINOES are actually “flattened dice,” the early sets and most Oriental versions having one to six “pips” per half block and not having any blank halves.
European favorites that at various times had a following in the United States include FOX AND GEESE, which had its origin around the year 1300, possibly in Iceland, and the GAME OF GOOSE which originated in Europe around 1500. By way of contrast, the earliest known American GAME OF GOOSE was printed in 1851.
The origin of many ancient games can be traced to Africa and to the Orient. The oldest board found showing the game of NINE MEN’S MORRIS, also known as MILL or MORELLES, was found in Egypt; the game has been popular throughout the world for centuries. GO, an ancient game from Japan, is still a favorite there and has earned a great following in the United States. MAH JONGG, the game that became a craze in the U.S. in the early 1920s, had been the game of China for hundreds of years.
Modern Classics. Many other games played in the United States today were popular a long time ago, though sometimes under a different name. OTHELLO, which won an award for the “best new game” of 1976 was played throughout the country in the 1950s! But then it was called “Reversi”–a title it was given when it first came to the U.S. from England in the 1880s.
PICK UP STICKS were played by European and American children in the 1880s, though then they were known as JACK STRAWS; they were often shaped like farmer’s tools, and some sets were made of bone or ivory rather than the usual wood.
CHUTES AND LADDERS, a Milton Bradley game first brought out in the United States in 1943, was, according to the Bradley catalog of that year, taken from SNAKES AND LADDERS, “England’s most famous indoor sport.” SNAKES AND LADDERS was an early Indian morality game, similar to many righteous games of the period in which virtue was rewarded and vice punished–the young player landing on special spaces on the board was either able to climb forward or forced to slide backward. CHUTES AND LADDERS is also akin to Bradley’s first game, THE CHECKERED GAME OF LIFE, in which the movement of players’ pieces was effected by the “good” or “evil” traits written in the spaces on which the players landed.
Another Indian game, the GAME OF INDIA, one of the most widely-played games in the world, can be traced to the Korean game of NYOUT from the third century. Milton Bradley and a company called McLoughlin Brothers produced the game in the United States around the turn-of-the-century, while in 1896 a similar version was being played in England under the name LUDO. The most famous GAME OF INDIA, however, was produced in this country around 1870 as PARCHEESI, still one of the most popular games today.
AMERICAN GAMES
Centuries ago games were carved in wood, painted on wood, or etched or drawn on stone and slate. Early settlers in the United States certainly played games, but most of the games were copied from or brought from other countries. Card games were not commercially manufactured in the United States until probably the late 1700s. The first American-manufactured board game on record is TRAVELLER’S TOUR THROUGH THE UNITED STATES, made in 1822 by F. & R. Lockwood, a family of New York booksellers. TRAVELLER’S TOUR THROUGH EUROPE is another Lockwood game sold later the same year. The lack of English imports after trade restrictions with Great Britain were imposed in 1809 may have paved the way for companies such as Lockwood to attempt the manufacture of their own games.
No record has surfaced showing any American company manufacturing board games for twenty years after 1822, though very little research has been done and one would expect to find other games made in the U.S. during this period. The manufacture of games in the United States began again in 1843 with the games of W. & S.B. Ives.
No Dice. The mid 1800s were a period of religious and moral fervor. Gambling was frowned upon and the dice so often associated with gambling games were considered “tools of the devil.” Soldiers during the Civil War sometimes carried dice to gamble with, but they would leave them behind when going into battle, so that in case they were killed in combat, the dice would not be sent back to the family as part of the soldier’s personal effects; Civil War battlefields are an excellent place to unearth early bone dice.
To avoid the stigma attached to dice, many early game makers used “teetotums”–devices like spinning tops; the numbers 1-6 (or 1-8) were printed on a hexagonal (or octagonal) piece of cardboard, then a small, wooden shaft with a pointed tip was pushed through the middle of the card. When the teetotum stopped spinning, the uppermost number dictated the number of spaces or the direction a player was allowed to move.
Games of Morality. Ives’ MANSION OF HAPPINESS (1843) was a copy of an English game from around 1800 and is a prime example of the sensibilities of the period. On the gameboard, printed under the title was, “an instructive moral and entertaining amusement.” This was followed by a poem:
At this amusement each will find
A moral fit t’ improve the mind;
It gives to those their proper due,
Who various paths of vice pursue,
And shows (while vice destruction brings)
That good from every virtue springs.
Be virtuous then and forward press,
To gain the seat of happiness.
Movement along the inwardly spiraling path toward the Mansion of Happiness was governed by a teetotum; when a player landed on a space denoting a virtue, the player was directed to move ahead toward the Mansion of Happiness; when landing on a space illustrating one of the vices, the player was instructed to move back toward start. For example, a player who landed on space number fourteen, marked “Passion,” had to return to space number six, “The Water”; the rule read: “Whoever gets in a Passion must be taken to the Water and have a ducking [SIC] to cool him.” Landing on Idleness sent the player to Poverty; players on the Road to Folly had to return to Prudence; the Perjurer was put in Pillory (a wooden framework with holes for the head and hands); the Sabbath Breaker was “taken to the Whipping Post and whipt”; any player who reached the Summit of Dissipation (a state of wastefulness) went to Ruin.
The tone of the game can be summed up best by two of the rules:
“Whoever possesses Piety, Honesty, Temperance, Gratitude, Prudence, Truth, Chastity, Sincerity, Humility, Industry, Charity, Humanity, or Generosity is entitled to advance…toward the Mansion of Happiness.
“Whoever possesses Audacity, Cruelty, Immodesty, or Ingratitude, must return to his former situation…and not even think of Happiness, much less partake of it.”
Milton Bradley’s first game, the CHECKERED GAME OF LIFE, made in 1860, was similar: movement was on a checkerboard, with a teetotum used to determine if the player could move one or two spaces left, right, or diagonally. The path took the player from Infancy to Happy Old Age. Landing on Bravery sent the player to Honor, Perseverance to Success, and Ambition to Fame. Gambling led to Ruin, and Idleness to Disgrace.
All Work and No Play. From Ives’ MANSION OF HAPPINESS and Bradley’s CHECKERED GAME OF LIFE alone one can gain some understanding about the concept of life and leisure in that period. In the Ives’ game Dissipation led to Ruin, and in the Bradley game, Idleness to Disgrace. Games were expected to be instructive and educational; a large proportion of the nineteenth century games were about history, geography, and popular authors; many board games used maps, and card games often contained questions and facts.
The family unit was strong, and most games were made to be played by parents and children both; a high percentage of the early game box covers depicted “home and hearth” scenes showing three generations of both sexes playing the game. The primary purpose of most games, it seems, was to enlighten, and to bring the family closer together. Amusements were allowed, of course, but purely “adult” games were rare, and even the youngest children were schooled more in responsibility than recreation.
Games were cherished, as shown by the many examples found of early gameboxes whose aprons have been painstakingly sewn back on. The games were made to last, to be used over and over, to be handed down. In spite of boxed games being constructed of just paper and cardboard, many of the games from the nineteenth and early twentieth century have survived to become the wonderful collectibles of today.
