What America's first board game can teach us concerning the aspirations of a young nation

Board games are booming: the industry reached its peak in 2023 alone $16.8 billion and is predicted to succeed in $40.1 billion by 2032.

Classics like “Scrabble” are refreshed and transformedwhile newer inventions like “Pandemic” and “span“have gained thousands and thousands of followers.

This growing cardboard empire was on my mind after I visited the American Antiquarian Society in August 2023 to explore his collection of early games.

As I sat on this archive, which houses treasures just like the 1640 Bay Book of Psalms, the primary book printed in British AmericaI saw one other first in American printing: a board game called “The Travelers' Tour Through the United States.”

This forgotten game, printed the 12 months after Missouri became a statehas rather a lot to say about America's burgeoning board game industry and the way a young country saw itself.

An archive find

Produced by the New York cartographic firm F. & R. Lockwood, “The Travelers' Tour Through the United States” was an imitation of earlier European maps Geography games, a genre of educational games. Geography games generally used a map as a game board, and the foundations involved players reciting geographical facts as they ran toward the goal.

The Travelers' Tour was first published in 1822, making it the earliest known board game printed within the United States

But for nearly a century, one other game had that honor.

In 1894, game manufacturer Parker Brothers acquired the rights to The Mansion of Happiness, an English game first produced within the United States in 1843. In its promotional materials, the corporate stated: “The first board game ever released in America.”

This distinction led to 1991 when a game collector found it the copy of “The Travelers' Tour” within the archives of the American Antiquarian Society.

A brand new game for the brand new 12 months

As early as 1822, the American marketplace for board games was established, and middle- and upper-class parents were buying games for themselves Families who wish to rejoice on the lounge table.

At that point, New Year's Day – not Christmas – was the vacation of giving. Many booksellers, who made money selling books, playing cards, and other paper goods all year long, would sell special goods give away as gifts.

These items included holiday-themed books and puzzles—on the time “dissected maps“ – and paper dolls as well as games imported from England such as “The new game of human life” And “The royal and entertaining goose game.”

There was “The Travellers' Tour”. first board game with a map of the USAit could have been a very interesting gift for American consumers.

However, it’s difficult to estimate how popular The Travelers' Tour was on the time. There aren’t any known sales records, and since only a number of examples remain, it’s unlikely to have been an enormous seller.

A worldwide database of library holdings shows only five copies of “The Travelers' Tour” in institutions across the United States. And while a handful of other copies remain in museums and personal archives, the sport is actually a rarity.

Teetotums and travelers

“The Travellers' Tour” advertises itself as a “pleasant and educational pastime” and consists of a hand-colored map of the at the moment 24 states and a numbered list of 139 cities, from New York City to New Madrid, Missouri. Next to every number is the name and outline of the corresponding city.

Using a variant spelling for the device, the instructions specify that the sport must be performed “with a tetotum.” Small top-like devices with numbers on the edges are called Teetotum acted as alternatives to dice, which were associated with immoral gambling.

Once the teetotum is spun, it lands random side up and displays a number. The player looks so many spaces ahead on the map.

If they’ll recite the name of town from memory, they move their token or traveler to this space. Whoever gets to New Orleans first wins.

An idealized portrait of a young country

Although it is just not crucial to play The Travelers' Tour, the descriptions of every location tell historians much about America's national ambitions.

These reports add as much as a flattering portrait of the nation's agricultural, business, historical and cultural character.

The game promotes the worth of education and highlights learning institutions. For example, Philadelphia is home to “numerous and distinguished literary and charitable institutions.” Providence boasts “Brown University, a distinguished literary institution.” And Boston's “citizens…are enterprising and liberal in their support of religious and literary institutions.”

As the characters meander toward New Orleans, players find out about Richmond's “fertile hinterland” and the “polite manners and unaffected hospitality” of the residents of Charleston. Savannah “contains many fine buildings” and Columbia’s “South Carolina College affords fair opportunity to be a valuable institution.”

However, all relevant descriptions fail to say what John C. Calhoun called America's “peculiar institution” of slavery and its role in the material of the nation.

And although 4 entries briefly seek advice from American Indians, this is just not mentioned the continuing dispossession and genocide of thousands and thousands of individuals the indigenous population.

Although “The Travelers' Tour” promotes an American identity based on a sanitized version of the country's economic power and mental rigor, it nonetheless represents a vital step toward a burgeoning American board game industry.

Two centuries later, board game culture has matured to the purpose where latest titles like “Freedom: The Subway” And “Voices for ladies“ Taking the genre to latest levels and using the enjoyment of gaming to convey the history of the era that produced America's first board game.