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The Stories Behind correspondence, photographs, dummies, illustra-
McLoughlin Books tions, color separations, proofs, and production
material dating from 1854 to the early 1950s.
McLoughlin Bros., like many book publishers A catalogue of McLoughlin Bros. toys,
of the day, copied hundreds of titles by others and books, games, paper dolls, blocks, and other
reissued them under its own imprint, usually novelty items published circa 1886 is now
undercutting its competition in the process. available online through the Hagley Museum
Adaptations of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and (Wilmington, DE) digital archives at
children’s classics such as Robin Hood, Hansel & www.digital.hagley.org. The catalogue, a great
Grethel [sic], Snow White, Cinderella, and Puss In resource for collectors and toy historians,
Boots, richly illustrated in beautiful color became lists each production item with a complete
catalog staples and wildly popular with a generation description, many with illustrative images.
of young readers.
Many of the books McLoughlin published The Market for McLoughlin
after the war can be characterized as “bowdleriza-
tions” or retellings of well-known children’s Early McLoughlin Bros. games and puzzles
stories. Bowdlerizations are considered to be less can be purchased at auctions at relatively
offensive versions of tales; however, not all affordable prices, reflecting a continuing interest
McLoughlin’s published books ended happily in these early examples of children’s games,
ever after. In one instance, the book Ten Little puzzles, paintings and books.
N****ers, based on the poem written by Frank Illustration from The Girl Who Inked Herself and Pook & Pook auctioned a number of
Green in 1869, was produced as a book for Her Books and How It Ended McLoughlin Bros. games and puzzles at its
younger children by McLoughlin Brothers in photo: American Antiquarian Society December 7, 2018 auction with Noel Barrett.
1872 – and included the music so the story could A Bulls And Bears Wall Street Game, patented
be sung, eventually turning the poem into a Minstrel song in the late 1800s. Although 1883, with a vibrant lithograph box lid of a
technically written to teach young children how to count backwards from ten, the story reveals dressed bull and bear standing on Wall Street,
an often violent demise as the number of children was lowered one at a time. The story was a folding board with comic portrait vignettes of
produced by many publishers up until 1956. Another example of such a book was the Gilded Age stock market characters Jay Gould,
McLoughlin Bros. edition of a story called The Girl Who Inked Herself, the retelling of a story Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Horace Greely,
about a girl who continually spills ink on herself until she turns black, at which point her parents including its original spinning board, play
call her “too hideous for a daughter” and sell her to a rag shop as a “black doll.” The story ends money, contracts, and instruction booklet,
with an image of Miss Mopsa hanging in the window of a rag shop. While these are the types of sold for $17,000 with active bidding. A
stories most commonly associated with McLoughlin Bros., the company also published religious, McLoughlin Bros. Game of the Visit of Santa
moralist, and other education texts. Claus, in the original box, and including a game
board, a cardboard spinner, 33 cards, and a
The McLoughlin Bros. Archives wooden game piece, sold for $2,000. Three
McLoughlin Bros. paper
The McLoughlin Bros. catalog of lithograph toys, including a set
products over a prolific five decades of seven nesting alphabet blocks,
(1858-1920) is extensive, and spans a a Pretty Village Church Set in
number of different collector categories, the original box, and a Fire
including illustrative art, toys, games, Engine Picture Puzzle in original
paper dolls, book publishing, picture box sold for $300, while other
books, and American children’s games, in varying condition,
literature to name a few. While good went for as little as $50.
examples of McLoughlin Bros. toys, Liveauctioneers shows a
books, and games can be affordably range of other auction houses
acquired online and at specialty making a market in early
auctions, it’s the company’s bigger McLoughlin Bros. games and
story and historic contributions to puzzles during 2018, including
these categories that interest historians Bruneau & Co. Auctions,
and academics, and driving museums Copake Auction, PBA Galleries,
and universities to find new homes for Morphy Auctions, and
its archival material among their Thomaston Place Auction
collection, where the company’s story Gallery. Prices range from $50
can be preserved and studied by into the thousands, based on
future generations. age, condition, game/object and
The American Antiquarian Society Games of Go Bang, Tivoli, and Fox & Geese, McLoughlin Bros., circa 1878
photo: Worthpoint.com graphics among other factors.
holds one of the major repositories of But like all antique collectibles,
McLoughlin Bros. materials, including over 1,700 picture books, games, paper toys, publishers’ the real value to be found in collecting
catalogs, company correspondence, and original artwork. This archival collection was originally McLoughlin Bros. books, toys, and games, is in
given to Company Vice-President Charles Ernest Miller (1869-1951) when the firm, then a the joy it brings to the collector.
division of Milton Bradley, was in the process of being sold to toy manufacturer Julius Kushner.
After his death, the collection was held by his daughter, Ruth Miller, who in 1968 sold her
father’s collection to collector Herbert H. Hosmer. Mr. Hosmer donated this collection to the Sources: americanantiquarian.org/mcloughlin-bros-
American Antiquarian Society in 1978. catalogs-price-lists-and-order-forms

The Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University holds one of the largest aggregations wikipedia.org/wiki/McLoughlin_Brothers
of McLoughlin Brothers’ catalogs, many from the firm’s own business office and publisher’s
archive, uniquely annotated with information about new editions, changes in illustrations, or liveauctioneers.com/price-guide/mcloughlin-brothers
new series. In addition, Cotsen holds ten large scrap-book-style “guard-books” containing proof
allaboutfunandgames.com
copies of illustrations for books, many extensively hand-annotated by McLoughlin Bros.
editorial or production staff. americanantiquarian.org/radiantwithcolor/exhibits/
The de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection at The University of Southern Mississippi show/exhibits/illustrators
also holds a collection of McLoughlin Bros. papers, manuscripts, typescripts, galleys,
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