MILTON BRADLEY’S INNOVATIONS

As a young man anxious to establish his career in the 1860’s, Milton Bradley hit on a winning plan: manufacturing board games. The decision was a sound one—before long his products were being enjoyed in countless American parlors. But Bradley, meanwhile, had begun to develop new interests as well.

An early devotee of the kindergarten movement, he realized that such schooling did not stand a chance of catching on unless the proper playthings and teaching equipment were available. By the 1870’s—though kindergartens were still rarities—Bradley decided to invest in the production of educational toys for this mere handful of customers.

Within a generation, there were over 3,000 kindergartens in America, and Bradley was supplying these early 20th-century classes with everything from crayons to child-size tables and chairs.

—Discovering America’s Past

[Reproduced with permission from Encylopedia of 15,000 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan,
Communications, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1998, #2060]

This material is published by the Faith Committee of the Character Council of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Reproduction and Adaptation is encouraged.