Milton Bradley

This article is about game publisher Milton Bradley. For the company named after him, see Milton Bradley Company .

Milton Bradley (born November 8, 1836 in Vienna , Maine , † May 30, 1911 in Springfield , Massachusetts ) was an American draftsman, lithographer, patent attorney, inventor and founder of the game manufacturer Milton Bradley Company . He is considered a pioneer in the game industry in North America.

Life

Bradley was born in Vienna to the craftsman Lewis Bradley and his wife Fannie Lyford Bradley.

After graduating from Lowell High School in 1854 , he enrolled at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University in Cambridge , Massachusetts, but dropped out of the two-year course after 1½ years as he moved with his parents to Hartford, Connecticut .

In 1856, at the age of 19, he moved to Springfield, where he immediately got a job as a draftsman with the Wason Manufacturing Company . After the Wason Car Manufacturing Co. briefly ceased operations in 1858, he became self-employed as a machine draftsman and patent attorney.

The Checkered Game of Life

Game board for The Checkered Game of Life

In about 1860 he learned the art of lithography , bought a printing press, and started a lithography business in Springfield. In 1860 he developed the game The Checkered Game of Life , which he patented in 1866.

In November 1860 he married Vilona Larue Eaton (born February 8, 1838 in Ludlow , † March 13, 1867).

After he sold more than 45,000 copies of his game in 1861, he decided to make other games as well, so he produced Games for the Soldiers in 1861 , a compilation of nine popular games.

Milton Bradley Company

In 1864 Bradley founded the company Milton Bradley & Company with partners JF Tapley and Clark W. Bryan , in 1878 he paid off the partners and renamed the company the Milton Bradley Company .

From 1880 he expanded the company's range to include puzzles.

kindergarten

After the death of his wife Vilona in 1867, he married Ellen Maria Thayer (* September 18, 1836 - September 19, 1918) with whom he had two daughters (Florence Lenore, * June 22, 1874 and Lilian Alice, * January 13, 1879) ).

In 1869 he and Edward Wiebés published the book The Paradise of Childhood: a manual for self-instruction in Friedrich Froebel's educational principles, and a practical Guide to Kinder-Garteners. the first American book about the ideas of the kindergarten by Friedrich Froebel .

He founded the first kindergarten in Springfield, where he, his wife and father were teachers.

He was also interested in colors and from 1890 wrote four books on color theory for children.

Books

• Color in the School Room , 1890
• Color in the Kindergarten , 1893
• Elementary Color , 1895
• Water Colors in the Schoolroom , 1900

Patents

• Patent US53561 : Social Game. Published April 3, 1866 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌
• Patent US54848 : Croquet Bridge. Published May 22, 1866 , Inventors: Lewis Bradley, Milton Bradley. ‌
• Utility model USD3664 : Design for a Hinge. Published September 21, 1869 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌
• Patent US215205 : Improvement in Paper-Cutting Machines. Registered December 16, 1878 , published May 13, 1879 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌
• Patent US225457 : Process of Engraving Printig-Surfaces. Published March 16, 1880 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌
• Patent US310873 : Toy Spring-Gun. Published January 20, 1885 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌
• Patent US416437 : Drawing-Board. Published December 3, 1889 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌
• Patent US418437 : Kindergarten table. Published December 31, 1889 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌
• Patent US492604 : Color-Disk Rotating Mechanism. Filed April 25, 1892 , published February 28, 1893 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌
• Patent US524160 : Compasses. Registered April 11, 1894 , published August 7, 1894 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌
• Patent US537887 : Color-Mixing Top. Registered February 16, 1894 , published April 23, 1895 , inventor: Milton Bradley. ‌

Awards

• Toy Industry Hall of Fame , inducted in 2004
• National Inventors Hall of Fame , inducted in 2006

literature

• Snyder, Jennifer Lee, A Critical Examination of Milton Bradley's Contributions to Kindergarten and Art Education in the Context of His Time (2005). Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations. Paper 373.

Web links

• Milton Bradley in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
• Milton Bradley in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved September 18, 2017 (English).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} ANB: Milton Bradley at H-Net (English)
2. ↑ Harvard Thinks Big 3 = 8 Really Big Ideas ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Harvard Political Review 
3. ↑ Milton Bradley Company History at fundinguniverse.com (English)
4. ^ Photos in Marriage of Milton Bradley and Vilona Eaton at geni.com
5. ↑ Milton Bradley at Notable Names Database (English)
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Wason Mfg. Co .: Milton Bradley at midcontinent.org (English)
7. ↑ Hall of Fame Inductees 1985-2004 ( Memento of the original from June 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the Toy Industry Association (English) 
8. ↑ Milton Bradley ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at National Inventors Hall of Fame (English) 
9. ↑ Jennifer Lee Snyder: A Critical Examination of Milton Bradley's Contributions to Kindergarten and Art Education in the Context of His Time ( Memento of the original from February 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2005, Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations. Paper 373 at diginole.lib.fsu.edu (English)