Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Milton Bradley and The Checkered Game of Life
The board game now called Life celebrated its 150th birthday in 2010. It was the first board game created by Milton Bradley in 1860. Bradley was a lithographer (a type of printing that uses a stone or metal plate and oil to create a print). He set up the first color lithography shop in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Milton Bradley was born in Vienna, Maine, in 1836. He attended high school in Lowell, Massachusetts. He attempted to earn a degree in drafting but ran out of money. He began working for Wason Car-Manufacturing Company where he worked on drafting plans for railroad cars. He remained there until 1860. During this time, he taught himself lithography.
During the 1860 presidential campaign, he printed and sold a lithograph of a clean-shaven Abraham Lincoln. The print sold well until Lincoln decided to grow a beard. Bradley's lithograph quickly became obsolete. Looking for a quick substitute, he ran across an imported board game given to him by a friend. He made a few changes and then released The Checkered Game of Life in the winter of 1860. The game was an instant success. It sold 45,000 copies during the first year.
