People are now obsessed with games on their smart phones, but there was a time in the late nineteenth century when board games were all the rage. This fad will be explored at an upcoming lecture at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum entitled, Chromolithography and the Golden Age of Board Games. This lecture, which will be presented by Margaret K. Hofer, Curator of Decorative Arts at the New-York Historical Society, will be held on October 9, 2013. The presentation begins at 11:00 AM at the Museum, located at 295 West Avenue in Norwalk. To reserve a seat, please contact the Mansion at 203-838-9799 ext. 4.
Boldly designed and colorfully packaged, board games exploded onto the market in the late nineteenth century with the adoption of chromolithography by American game manufacturers. In this illustrated lecture, Margaret Hofer will consider the games that entertained Americans from the 1840s to the 1920s, focusing on the golden age of the 1880s and '90s, when firms like McLoughlin Brothers produced vibrant, sumptuous games for a burgeoning middle-class audience. These parlor amusements offer a visual feast as well as a fascinating window into the values, beliefs, and aspirations of a nation undergoing tremendous change.
Margaret K. Hofer is Curator of Decorative Arts at the New-York Historical Society, where she has worked since 1993. Hofer has curated numerous exhibitions on topics ranging from colonial carriages to Victorian board games. Her publications include Seat of Empire (2002, with Roberta Olson), The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board and Table Games (2003), A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls (2007, with Martin Eidelberg and Nina Gray), and Stories in Sterling: Four Centuries of Silver in New York (2011). She received her B.A. from Yale University and M.A. from the University of Delaware's Winterthur Program in Early American Culture.
The lecture is part of a series of lectures at the Museum on "Technologies and Discoveries of the Victorian Era." The lectures are $25 for members, $30 for non-members. The price includes lecture, lunch and mansion tour. Lunch is courtesy of Michael Gilmartin's Outdoor Cookers. The chair of the Lecture Committee is Mimi Findlay of New Canaan.
The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum's 2013 cultural and educational programs are made possible by generous funding from the Museum's Distinguished Benefactors: The Xerox Foundation, Klaff's, Mrs. Cynthia C. Brown and The Maurice Goodman Foundation.
The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark located at 295 West Avenue in Norwalk. Tours are offered Wednesdays through Sundays, at Noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. Admittance is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for students 8 -18. Children under 8 are admitted free.
