Artist/Maker
McLoughlin Brothers
(American, 1854 – 1921)
The Game of Tight Rope
1870
Place madeNew York, New York, United States, North America
Cardboard, paper
Overall: 9 1/4 × 11 1/8 in. (23.5 × 28.3 cm)
The Liman Collection
2000.723
The Game of Tight Rope carries subtle references to America's post-Civil War Reconstruction (1865-1877). Players travel across a precarious rope bridge, trying to avoid plunging into the swift waters below. A nearby rescue boat, piloted by Uncle Sam, carries an African-American child representing the Freedmen's Bureau, an agency formed in 1865 to aid and protect newly freed blacks.
Description"The Game of Tight Rope" bi-fold, paper covered cardboard game board; board chromolithographed with an image of four clowns crossing a tightrope above a river with a waterfall in the background, one man is falling into the river and two men are swimming out to a boat in the lower right corner, below tight rope is a numbered grid; board printed with text: "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1870, by McLOUGHLIN BROS., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington./ GAME OF TIGHT ROPE."; label on the reverse of the board with a man walking on a tight rope and text: "GAME OF/ TIGHT/ ROPE/ McLOUGHLIN BROS. NEW YORK."ClassificationsTOYS
Collections
- Board and Table Games: The Liman Collection Gift
- Underground Railroad
McLoughlin Brothers
1875
2000.674
