Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Part I The History of the Game of the Goose and its Variants, from its earliest appearance to the end of the 19th century
- Part II The Legacy of the Game of the Goose in the Modern Era
- Conclusion
- Glossary of technical terms
- Figures
- Literature quoted with abbreviated titles
- Index of Games
- Index of Subjects
13 - The Board Game links between Europe and the USA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Part I The History of the Game of the Goose and its Variants, from its earliest appearance to the end of the 19th century
- Part II The Legacy of the Game of the Goose in the Modern Era
- Conclusion
- Glossary of technical terms
- Figures
- Literature quoted with abbreviated titles
- Index of Games
- Index of Subjects
Summary
The subject of the printed board games of the USA merits a book in itself. This short chapter deals only with the transfers of games from Europe that helped to shape the development of board games in America from the first half of the 19th century onwards.
Imports from England
The earliest commercial board games to circulate in the USA were imported from England. John Spear notes an advertisement in the Pennsyvania Packet as early as 1775:
31 July: Nicholas Brook, in Second-street […] continues to dispose of the following curious collection of goods. Elegant cutteau de chases [hunting knives] […] a very elegant pardepee [pard’épée] to hang a sword to […] a variety of music of the most approved tunes […] cards of history and geography, with or without morocco cases […] London- made silver shoe and knee buckles […] steel cock gaffs [spurs for fighting cocks] […] dice and boxes; a journey through Europe, or the play of geography, invented by Jefferies for the instructive entertainment of young gentlemen and ladies […].
The ‘curious collection’ would appear to be a ship-load of very various goods, probably from London. The game advertised is that invented by Jefferys in 1759, described in Chapter 6, Section 6.
Peter Benes has studied the evidence furnished by American newspaper advertisements in the period 1790 to 1830 and has kindly shared his research with the present author. The first advertisement for ‘totum’ games that he notes is the following:
New York: Daily Gazette, 7th August 1792 − Thomas Barrow, No. 16 Smith Street, NY City. Game of human life, moral and entertaining […].
The game is listed among art supplies, hieroglyphic bibles, spelling cards, spectacle cases, and paper hangings; Barrow was also a print seller. In the National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser for 7 December 1804, Edgar Patterson's Stationary and Fancy Store, George Town, offered:
Geographical and genealogical pastimes and arithmetical games with totums.
Boston advertisements appeared at a similar date, the earliest being from Jane Salter, who with her husband Richard kept a toy store in Boston:
Boston: Columbian Centinel, 2nd November 1805 − Jane Salter, has received from the Mary a fresh assortment of Toys, Dolls, drest and undrest Wax Dolls, with moving eyes, dissected Maps of the World, Europe, &c. Bowle's Game of the World, and Europe.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cultural Legacy of the Royal Game of the Goose400 Years of Printed Board Games, pp. 279 - 288Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019