1889 Milton Bradley American Sports Game

[aelefson]

Hi-
I recently found the card game scanned below and I had a few questions regarding it. First, here is what I know about it. It is in an 1889 Milton Bradley game catalog https://archive.org/stream/catalogue...0milt_djvu.txt

Although the catalog does not state it, I am fairly certain this is a matching game as each sport scene has been cut down the middle and each card from the same sport has the same number.

Does anyone have a complete version of this game? I would love to see what the missing cards look like. Did this game come in a sports themed box or other packaging? Was it issued in panels and the cards were cut by the consumer? Or, were they cut at the factory? The lack of uniformity on some of the cuts has me thinking this was done at home but I am not sure. When did they start producing this game? Any other information regarding this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Alan

[vintagesportscollector]

Polo on Wheels, and Soap Bubble Party??...interesting.

[aelefson]

There are definitely some crazy sports included in this game! I figured I would bump this once to see if anyone knows anything more about this game or can show the missing cards and packaging.

Alan

[Butch7999]

We're in the process of consulting on your behalf with an expert of our acquaintance, who is in turn
consulting with other experts of his acquaintance... hang on, we'll be back soon with something...

While we wait for his reply, we're going to guess 14 and 15 feature rowing and either boxing or wrestling...

[cincicards]

Kind of reminds me of these pins:

oldpins.jpg IMG_0015.JPG

[aelefson]

Thanks guys! Butch, please take your time and thank you! Randall, those pins are cool. Do you know who made them?

[Butch7999]

Hi Alan -- apologies for the delay, but our source had to ask another guy, who had to ask another guy,
who had to get back to the second guy, who had to get back to our source, who had to get back to us,
and did just yesterday.

Anyway, here are the cards your set is missing, including the rules.
We knew rowing would be in there somewhere!

[Leon]

Great stuff Butch7999 and team!!

Originally Posted by Butch7999

Hi Alan -- apologies for the delay, but our source had to ask another guy, who had to ask another guy,
who had to get back to the second guy, who had to get back to our source, who had to get back to us,
and did just yesterday.

Anyway, here are the cards your set is missing, including the rules.
We knew rowing would be in there somewhere!

[aelefson]

Thanks Butch7999! It is great to see the missing cards. I really appreciate the help.

Alan

[Butch7999]

Glad to help, Alan, and our thanks to both you and Leon for the kind words!
We're fortunate to have the acquaintance of the World's Leading Authority on Boardgames,
Bruce Whitehill, who really did all the legwork on this one after it stumped even him,
but he networked for us through other game historians to come up with the images.