Alfred Wallace: Games…in HISTORY

On the road again—I’m posting this from a supermarket with wifi, just before I head back out into the cruel wilderness that is the Pennsylvania highway system.  As I leave—and vaguely apropos of the recent holiday—I thought I’d post some interesting historical tidbits I’ve gleaned from colonial American newspapers.

One of the great boons of the Internet age to historians is the “America’s Historical Newspapers” database online, which has searchable scans of newspapers going deep back into the colonial era.  You can look for almost anything—even things like game terms.  (I have half a mind to write an article someday on games in America, so it’s not entirely frivolous.  Also, there’s this little column...)

One of the earliest citations I can find to a game is from 1739, in Philadelphia.  Robert Barton, a local cabinetmaker, was advertising his various wares “at the most reasonable rates.” He had various chairs, stools, couches—and backgammon tables, sold complete with “men, boxes, and dies.” The first FLGS?  If so, we can all be thankful that you can’t find one of his wares nowadays; he also had “a likely Negro Woman fit for Town or Country Business, with a Child about one Year and an half old, to dispose of.” (Yes, even in Philadelphia.  Every colony, and later state, had slaves until well into the 19th century.)

In 1742, in the same newspaper, a merchant named Townsend White advertised that he had just received a shipment of imports from London.  I’d have loved to see one of these merchants’ stores back then; they sold everything.  White had umpteen kinds of fabric, handkerchiefs, lace, silk, brushes, books, gunpowder, tea, glasses, silverware, horse-whips, “umbrelloes,” hats—and playing cards and backgammon tables.  One is reminded of waiting for an Adam Spielt order…

In 1761, the New York Post-Gazette ran an ad from James Rivington, a local publisher and bookseller.  It listed three new books of his: a merchants’ directory of the English colonies in America, a guide for Freemasons, and a new edition of Hoyle—already in its 12th edition.  That book has been around a while.  I wonder if that’s the first one published in the New World?  This edition printed some of the new Laws of Whist, as were then current at the trendiest chocolate houses in London.  (This being the era of drinking fancy chocolate drinks, rather than coffee.) I’d love to have a copy of the mercantile guide and the Hoyle—the Freemasons guide is of less interest…

The next year, the Gazette reprinted an English article which deals with a subject that haunts us still: Sportsmanship.  “Life is like a Game at Backgammon, and if an unlucky Throw comes, we must make the best of it, and play on without grumbling at our Ill-Luck: But who would venture to sit down to the Table with a Man who could not bear an adverse Cast without Turning over the Board with a Fury, and throwing the Dice-Box at the Head of his Companion?” Well said, sir.

Chess doesn’t appear nearly as often.  My guess is that it’s easier to gamble at backgammon, cards, etc. than chess.  Lots of gambling apparatus appeared on the ships coming into port; several advertise that they have cockfighting paraphernalia. 

Sometimes, though, games are listed in other categories.  The magnificently-named “Universal Store, or the Medley of GOODS for the CURIOUS,” run by the equally-magnificently-named Gerardus Duyckinck, at the “Sign of the Looking-Glass and the Druggist-Pot,” had a glorious array of neat things.  Maps, books, umpteen kinds of writing paper—and one section of particular interest which begins with “electrical tubes, prisms, convex lenses and concave mirrors, magick lanthorns with pictures for [same], optical machines for viewing of prints,” and continues on to the inevitable backgammon tables.  One wonders if there were, even then, a link between the nerd and gamer populations?

After backgammon—and dice generally—Cribbage makes a good showing.  An importer listed Cribbage (and checkers) boards alongside his backgammon, cards, and dice among his recent acquisitions, along with “Merry Andrew” and “Best Harry’s” cards.  No clue what those are, unless they’re brand names for playing cards.  Inevitably, there’s a lot alongside them: pencils, violin strings, padlocks, “a variety of Dutch and English toys” (I’m curious what those are), Oyster knives, and on and on and on.

No telling what the price of any of this is.  I’m guessing high.  I’ve never seen a colonial backgammon table or set on Antiques Roadshow or the like. I wonder how many have survived?

This will likely be part of a series—it starts to get a little more interesting as we progress through the years.

© 2007 Alfred Wallace

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Very interesting--thanks for doing the research. It would also be nice to design/play a game themed around the import business in the colonies (a refreshing switch from Middle Ages Europe)--call it “Universal Store or the Medley of Goods for the Curious.” Posted by Jeff Allers on Jul 6, 2007 at 03:05 AM | #

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