Collection Highlights
The Lost Cause
Date:
1871
Object Number:
PR.068.19
Medium:
Engraving
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Museum Collections
Luce Center
Games of John Gilpin, Rainbow Backgammon and Bewildered Travelers
Object Number:
2000.664
Date:
ca. 1875
Medium:
Wood, cardboard, paper, metal
Dimensions:
Overall (closed): 2 1/8 x 9 1/4 x 18 1/8 in. (5.4 x 23.5 x 46 cm)
Marks:
lithographed: on the side of the box: "GAMES OF JOHN GILPIN/ RAINBOW BACKGAMMON AND BEWILDERED TRAVELERS".
Description:
"Games of John Gilpin, Rainbow Backgammon and Bewildered Travelers" board game with a paper instruction booklet and a hinged box that opens like a book with two boards on the interior; on the inerior one side is a grid of red, white, black, gold and green squares with images of houses in the four corners and the other side with a red oval path with blue circles surrounded by rainbow colored triangles; box opens to a circular board divided into eight pie-shaped wedges with images of people with horses in each, corners have images of a horse, a patriot, a woman and a jockey in medallions; side of box lithographed, "GAMES OF JOHN GILPIN/ RAINBOW BACKGAMMON AND BEWILDERED TRAVELERS".
Gallery Label:
Introduced in the 1870s and popular for more than a decade, folding "bookshelf" games combined three games in one double-sided board and resembled the spine of a book when closed. The game of John Gilpin, based on an 18th-century English poem about the travails of a rider on a runaway horse, features two additional games on the reverse side.
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.
