From Players to Consumers
The educational role of board games in the Second Industrial Revolution
This project focuses on board games that were printed by catchpenny printers during the Second Industrial Revolution. It investigates their role in the dissemination of the ideas of that time among children.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Rijksmuseum’s collections display more than 400 board games, many of which were issued during the Industrial Revolution that reshaped Europe in the late nineteenth century. Most of these games were published by the same printers that were producing and selling catchpenny prints (centsprenten) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During the Third Republic in France (1875–1940), mass-produced catchpenny prints served as educational tools that contributed to the spreading of ideological and political values among children. Since catchpenny printers were, arguably, important stakeholders during the Second Industrial Revolution, could it be that they used their collections of board games to turn children into participants in the development of the consumption society?
Aim of the Project
To answer this question, this project will focus on board games printed from 1830 to 1914. They will be considered as the result – and thus reflect – of choices that are made by authors, illustrators and publishers. This project uses an intermedial analysis supported by a historical and sociological approach to achieve a better understanding of their role(s) in the education of children as future workers and – first and foremost – consumers.
Researchers
Céline Zaepffel
c.zaepffel@rijksmuseum.nl
Johan Huizinga fellow
Eveline Sint Nicolaas
e.sintnicolaas@rijksmuseum.nl
Senior Curator of History
Daniel Horst
d.horst@rijksmuseum.nl
Curator of History
