NEW YORK.- The New York Historical Society presents "The Games We Played," on view through January 5, 2003. The Games We Played is a playful exploration of board games as expressive documents of our nation’s complex cultural history. More than 150 examples, displayed and interpreted for visitors of all ages, demonstrate how games entertained (and indoctrinated) American families from the end of the Civil War through the early years of the 20th century.



A majority of the board and table games in the exhibition were manufactured in New York City, then the capital of the country’s burgeoning game industry. The games document the official values and aspirations of the United States as it strained to absorb millions of new immigrants, ascended to international commercial power, and experienced a shift from predominantly agrarian to urban living.



Objects on view are from the recently acquired Liman Collection of Board and Table Games, a nearly definitive collection of over 550 American board games, card games, and puzzles gathered over two decades by astute New York City collectors Ellen and the late Arthur Liman. The games exhibit eye-catching graphics while making pointed cultural statements, some familiar and still relevant, and others egregiously alien to contemporary American values. Games such as McLoughlin Brothers ’The Man in the Moon’ (1901) and ’Rival Policemen’ (1896) display the bold design and brilliant colors made possible by advances in chromolithography. McLoughlin Brothers’ ’The Game of Bulls and Bears’ (1883) offers a telling glimpse into Gilded Age attitudes towards competition and success, while ’Round the World with Nellie Bly’ (1890) reveals Victorians fascination with travel and exploration as well as a rare example of a positive female role model.



Appropriately installed in the Society’s Luman Reed Gallery, a re-creation of a nineteenth-century New York City interior, The Games We Played will include a parlor vignette to set the scene for Victorian American game-playing. An introductory display featuring an array of games and game pieces spanning the period from 1850 to 1910 will explain important technological advancements and cultural shifts which combined to produce the late 19th-century boom in the game industry. Eight thematic areas will explore the games as cultural documents. For instance, the section titled ’Merit Rewarded’ investigates the various ways in which players can advance and win a game (i.e. by leading a moral life or by reaching the top of the corporate ladder), and suggests how this might reflect the changing view of success in Victorian America. ’Back to Square One, deals frankly with the subject of racial stereotypes, illustrating with games such as ’The Watermelon Patch’ (1896) and ’Jim Crow Ten Pins’ (ca. 1900) how cliched images of African-Americans were an accepted element of 19th-century visual culture, unfortunately reinforcing and perpetuating racist views.

The Games We Played also features inviting interactive stations challenging visitors of all ages to try their hand at various 19th century board games, including Milton Bradley’s enormously popular ’Checkered Game of Life’ (1866), and McLoughlin Brothers’ one-stop shopping experience ’The Game of Playing Department Store’ (1898). A rotating selection of games from the Liman Collection will be continually on view in the Society’s recently-opened Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture, an installation of the Society’s extensive art and artifact collection and acclaimed resource for object-based learning.