1900-1920's Games

I think we've hit a research jackpot!

In the very first Game Design blog I had expressed a hoped to "See a correlation between America's political, economic and social state in relationship to it's game preference" overtime. I wanted to see if Monopoly, for example, was marketed in a time when house marketing, personal finance and investment become exceedingly popular. I also wanted to see if the game was created to influence it's decade or if the game was a byproduct of its time.

Then, as expressed in a later blog, I thought it would also be interesting to track a correlation between games that captured the essence of an experience with those of original experience.

The early 20th century decades were brilliant years for this research:

Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs and Erector Sets all became popular during this time. They were created as an attempt, "To mold children's minds early in the hopes of becoming engineers". They captured the essence of a real-life experience in order to influence.

For the first time in game/toy history there is an obvious correlation between games and toys, and America's social state.

The Teddy Bear also became popular during the early 20th Century. Unlike the products made to influence their time the Teddy Bear was a byproduct of its time. The bears were based off of a political cartoon illustrating Roosevelt's hunting trip to Mississippi earlier that year.

Although there were songs such as "Ring Around the Rosey" that capture a moment in history, according to the research gathered, the Teddy Bear was the very first toy to showcase an event in time.

Raggedy Ann and Kewpie dolls were also popular in the 1920's. Raggedy Ann was especially popular because she was said to be a symbol of simpler times. Although the doll reflected the past, she brought comfort to the world around her. Raggedy Ann was originally a story character who displayed trustworthiness, kindness and spunk. It seemed to make sense to market the character's values especially as America entered into the Depression. She was a byproduct of the desired values throughout the early 20th century.

Finally, the 1927 invention of polystyrene made toy cars and model sets far easier to produce. Their new popularity was a byproduct of an invention, however, they quite possibly could have been marketed to encourage young engineers, mechanics or car sales.

In addition the new toys, there were many new games such as hide-and-go-seek and ping-pong. Unlike many of the new toys, the games seemed to have been created as an original means of having fun.

The 20th century was full of new innovations. The research was richer than any other time previously studied. There was evidence new correlations and far more information to compare.

Reference 1
Reference 2
Raggedy Ann Photo
Lincoln Logs Photo
Reference 3