Collection Highlights
"A Visit from St. Nicholas"
Date:
1862
Object Number:
MSS.BV.Moore.1
SUPPORT THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Help us present groundbreaking exhibitions and develop educational programs about our nation's history for more than 200,000 schoolchildren annually.
Museum Collections
Luce Center
Game of Little Volunteer
Object Number:
2000.378
Date:
1898
Medium:
Cardboard, paper, lead, metal
Dimensions:
Overall: 1 1/8 x 21 1/8 x 12 1/2 in. ( 2.9 x 53.7 x 31.8 cm )
Marks:
lithographed: on the box cover: "THE GAME OF/ The/ Little/ Volunteer/ COPYRIGHT 1898 BY/ McLOUGHLIn BROS./ NEW YORK."
Description:
"Game of Little Volunteer" board game with a paper covered cardboard and wood box with the paper gameboard applied to the bottom half on the box; board with a snaking path of red and blue checkerboard squares between army vignettes such as "Drill", "Canteen" and "Shot, Go back to Hospital"; box cover chromolithographed with a little boy in a fez marching with a drum and a dog in a paper hat holding a rifle on the left and a image of Teddy Roosevelt as a Rough Rider on horseback in the right corner; box cover inscribed, "THE GAME OF/ The/ Little/ Volunteer/ COPYRIGHT 1898 BY/ McLOUGHLIn BROS./ NEW YORK."; playing pieces include a double arrow spinner and a lead figure.
Gallery Label:
The object of this game is "to see which little Volunteer can rise from the ranks to be Commander-in-Chief." Grisly images showing bloodshed were apparently not troubling to children and parents of the 1890s.
Bibliography:
Hofer, Margaret K. "The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board & Table Games." New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.
Credit Line:
The Liman Collection
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
