In keeping with our term theme of games, today’s geek of the week has a name nearly synonymous with American board games – Milton Bradley.
Bradley was born in 1836 in Maine. He started a career as a
draftsman, and eventually moved into lithography. In 1860, he opened the first
color lithography shop in Springfield, Massachusetts. He had initial success
after printing an image of Abraham Lincoln, but after Lincoln grew his beard
the prints were extremely unpopular. He decided to pursue other options, and released
a board game that he called The Checkered Game of Life.
The game was an instant success – by 1861, Bradley had sold
more than 45,000 copies. It’s popularity may have stemmed from the fact that,
unlike previous “board games,” the goal of the game was to WIN, not just to
demonstrate moral values.
During the Civil War, Bradley shifted his focus to creating
small games that soldiers could play during their long periods of tedium,
including games like checkers and chess.
Bradley went on to found the Milton Bradley Company, which
then released many of the century’s most popular board games. He also became
very involved in promoting kindergarten, and the company began manufacturing
colored papers and paints for educational purposes. He was posthumously
inducteded into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame in 2004.
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