Games

The Society's game collection has over 200 items, and continues to grow as acquisition opportunities appear. The games are arranged in two classes: one for instructional games, the other for entertaining games. The games collection is particularly strong in holdings of board and card games, both for children and young adults. In addition, the collection has a fine representative sampling of puzzles, blocks, and paper dolls. The games collection can be surveyed and accessed through an online inventory.

McLoughlin Brothers, a firm that pioneered the mass production of color picture books, also published a significant number of games in the collection. Over one thousand McLoughlin Brothers picture books are McLoughlin Brothers Collection, some of which contain advertisements for games available at AAS. The Society also holds archival drawings depicting figures used in some McLoughlin Brothers games. The McLoughlin Bros. - Hosmer Archival Drawings and Prints may be access though the collection's box list.

Historians conducting research on topics such as childhood, courtship, leisure, the rise of popular authorship, and the cult of celebrity will find very rich materials in the games collection.

- Laura E. Wasowicz, Curator of Children's Literature