They are known as one of the heavyweights in board games today and they started way back in the mid 1850s. I am talking about the Parker Brothers. Their game design journey began when George Parker decided to redo a boring game called Everlasting. This game was made to teach moral lessons to young people. He decided he wanted to make the game more fun and less like a lecture you would hear from one of your parents. He added to new cards to the game and he also changed some of the rules, he eventually renamed the game Banking. Him, his brother and his friends enjoyed playing it so much he ended up making over 500 copies to sell to Boston area stores. This game turned him his first profit of nearly 80 dollars. This would be the first of 1800 games published by the two brothers and their company.
By 1887, George Parker had hired his first employee and rented a store in Salem Massachusetts. A year later he would invited his brother Charles to join him in his business and then nearly 10 years later he would invite his younger brother Edward. After Charles joined he soon started to persuade his brother to start manufacturing games under the Parker Brothers title. They opened up a manufactory along with their store. Some of the earliest titles to come out included names like Ye Yankee Peddler, Billy Bumps Goes to Boston and the Yale – Harvard Game. To learn more about Ye Yankee Peddler and Yale – Harvard Game click on the links. The company began to innovate and grow from there.
“Parker Brothers.” Board Game Publisher | BoardGameGeek, boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/28/parker-brothers.
Turns Through History 