Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The early portion
of his career was marked by a long string of bad luck. He wanted to be
a scientist, and in 1854 he took his savings and enrolled in the
Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge. Unfortunately, his parents
decided to move two years later, and he was forced to drop out. He
commuted from his family home in Hartford, Connecticut, to
Springfield, Massachusetts, where he worked as a draftsman for die
Wason Locomotive Car Works.
While he was working in Springfield, Bradley began to dream of another
career. He wanted to be a lithographer, a dream that seemed impossible
because of the lack of lithographic presses in Springfield. One day
Bradley heard about a press that was for sale in Providence, Rhode
Island. He traveled to Providence, learned to use the machine, bought
it, and brought it back to Springfield.
In 1860, Bradley got his first big project. The Republican National
Convention suggested that he produce photographs of their candidate,
Abraham Lincoln. Bradley pressed hundreds of thousands of the
pictures, but by the time Lincoln won the election he had grown a
beard and no longer resembled the photographs. No one bought them. The
Civil War followed shortly after, and it seemed Bradley's business was
doomed. But then an inventor brought Bradley a game called "The
Checkered Game of Life." He printed 45,000 copies. The game was meant
to be educational. The purpose was to finish the game with a peaceful
retirement based on having made proper moral decisions.
By 1868, Milton Bradley was the leading manufacturer of games in
America. Over the years, the object of the Game of Life shifted. In
the modern version, the person who retires with the greatest fortune
wins.
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