McLoughlin Brothers- An Early American Puzzle Legend

Thursday, September 26, 2013
   (Another Exceptional Early Autumn Day)

McLoughlin Brosthers
(An Early American Puzzle Legend)

    I have about 10 web sources that list and describe toy companies. I hardly ever go top visit them, but yesterday I did.  The name of the McLoughlin Bros., Inc. caught my interest, and that started the process for today's post.  My biggest surprise was that the fact  that I never heard of them, when in fact they were one of the largest manufacturers of early American board games in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The company was later acquired by Milton-Bradly, another "giant" at the time, and today is still around.

McLoughlin Bros., Inc. was a New York publishing firm active between 1828^[1] and 1920. The company was a pioneer in color printing technologies in children's books.^[2] The company specialized in retellings or bowdlerizations of classic stories for children. The artistic and commercial roots of the McLoughlin firm were first developed by John McLoughlin, Jr. (1827–1905) who made his younger brother Edmund McLoughlin (1833 or 4-1889) a partner in 1855. By 1886, the firm published a wide range of items, including cheap chapbooks, large folio picture books, linen books, puzzles, games and paper dolls. Many of the earliest and most valuable board games in America were produced by McLoughlin Brothers of New York. In 1920 the corporation was sold to Milton Bradley & Company. McLoughlin ceased game production at this time, but continued publishing their picture books.*

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLoughlin_Brothers    (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Please click here to be redirected to Bertoia Auctions fine website

What fascinated me about old magazines, posters, or in this case, games and puzzles is the exceptional quality of art work from the many artists that would have worked for McLoughlin Bros., Inc. at the time.  When I studied pro photography in Providence,Rhode Island (USA), I was fortunate enough to come across a collection of old magazines from the 1920's.  If you ever wanted to know about people and styles from a long time ago, this is a great way to go. As for the fine works of the McLoughlin Brothers, their puzzles, games, and books are still plentiful, and price-wise, they're still within reach of most people.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com