The New Premium Game Logomachy, or War of Words

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The New Premium Game Logomachy, or War of Words

Period1887

Place MadeBrooklyn, New York, U.S.A.

MediumCardboard, chromolithographed paper, pasteboard

Dimensions6 × 8.5 × 1 in. (15.2 × 21.6 × 2.5 cm)

ClassificationsToys & Games

Credit LineMuseum Collection

Object number1999.545

DescriptionA blue figured cardboard box with lid, with a brightly colored chromolithographed label with the bold title "LOGOMACY" in gilt lettering, with exotic woman draped across the title, wearing a pink toga. Inside the box, a printed instruction booklet outlines rules and play. Two original pieces of paper still inside from the original players, with lists of words and scores. Sixty six brightly colored cardboard playing cards, with various letters of the alphabet emblazoned on the fronts, and additional single letter bonus or "Prize" cards, including J, K, Q, V, X, and Z. On the bottom of the box, an inked inscription reads "Josie A. Brown / Christmas 1889 / from / Aunt Jane Walker."
NotesAt its height in the 1880s and 1890s, McLoughlin Brothers was recognized as the premiere publishers and manufacturers of children's printed games, books, puzzles, and related items in the United States. John McLoughlin, Jr. (1827 - 1905) worked for his father John McLoughlin, Sr.'s, company Elton & Co., where he learned printing and engraving. The younger McLoughlin began his own company in the early 1850s, and by 1855 had made his younger brother Edmund (1833 - 1889) a full partner. From the start, the McLoughlins deliberately focused on the juvenile market alone, in contrast to other printing companies that produced children's materials as a sideline. McLoughlin Brothers were known for the high quality and vibrancy of their printed books, puzzles, card and board games. Post-Civil War American manufacturers recognized children as an important consumer group, albeit through their parents as the actual purchasers. An article in the Brooklyn Union in October of 1870 described the firm's factory as "a plain, unpretending brick building, five stories and basement, 50 x 100 feet," with an extensive description of the machinery, including the printing and finishing presses.The article also went on to note that "they give constant employment to 120 people, two-thirds of whom are boys and girls. Their bill of wages amounts weekly to about $1,000." By the 1880s, the McLoughlin Brothers firm employed over 850 people, including at least 75 artists working at their Brooklyn factory. The company displayed their wares at national expositions, winning a Silver Medal at the 1874 Cincinnati Industrial Exposition. Although the firm was plagued from time to time with labor troubles, employees came together in the spring and summer of 1889 and donated $200 to a fund set up for the victims of the Johnstown Flood. After John McLoughlin's death in 1905, the company struggled, and in 1920 was sold to Milton Bradley & Company. McLoughlin Brothers sold a series of "Grandmama's Sunday Games," including Old and New Testament topics, for twenty five cents a piece.

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