Milton Bradley Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Milton Bradley
OCCUPATION: Entrepreneur
BIRTH DATE: November 08, 1836
DEATH DATE: May 30, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH: Vienna, Maine
PLACE OF DEATH: Massachusetts

Best Known For

Milton Bradley was a businessman and a manufacturer of toys and board games. He founded Milton Bradley Co.

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Milton Bradley

APA Style

Milton Bradley. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 05:48, May 18, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/milton-bradley-9223556.

Harvard Style

Milton Bradley. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/milton-bradley-9223556 [Accessed 18 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Milton Bradley." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 18 2013, 05:48 http://www.biography.com/people/milton-bradley-9223556.

MHRA Style

"Milton Bradley," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/milton-bradley-9223556 [accessed May 18, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Milton Bradley," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/milton-bradley-9223556 (accessed May 18, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Milton Bradley [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 18] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/milton-bradley-9223556.

Bluebook Style

Milton Bradley, http://www.biography.com/people/milton-bradley-9223556 (last visited May 18, 2013).

AMA Style

Milton Bradley. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/milton-bradley-9223556. Accessed May 18, 2013.

Synopsis

Milton Bradley was born on November 8, 1836, in Vienna, Maine. He started his career as a draughtsman and lithographer but when he printed and sold the board game, ‘The Checkered Game of Life’, it was so successful that it led him to form Milton Bradley and Company. The company was a longtime leader in the American manufacture of games and toys. Bradley died in 1911.

Early Life and Career

Manufacturer and businessman Milton Bradley was born on November 8, 1836, in Vienna, Maine. After various positions as a draughtsman, he became interested in lithography and introduced the first lithograph press to Springfield, Massachusetts in 1860. He is reagrded by many for launching the board game industry.

Launching Board Game Industry

Bradley printed and personally sold a new parlour game, The Checkered Game of Life, which became so profitable that he formed Milton Bradley and Company (1864) to print games and game manuals. In 1869, he published the first book on kindergartens in the U.S., Paradise of Childhood, by the German kindergarten pioneer, Friedrich Froebel. Bradley followed up with a series of kindergarten materials, newsletters and children's books.

Interested in teaching colours, Bradley wrote and published four books including Color in the Kindergarten (1893). In 1893 his company began publishing the Kindergarten Review which became the journal of the International Kindergarten Union. His partners retired in 1878 and he reorganized as Milton Bradley Co, which long retained its position as a leading American manufacturer of games and toys.