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:

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:

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:

Boston advertisements appeared at a similar date, the earliest being from Jane Salter, who with her husband Richard kept a toy store in Boston: