Board game:Comical Goose-Game

In 1843, W. & S.B. Ives of Salem, Massachusetts first published designer and children's book author Ann Abbot's board game The Mansion of Happiness. This was certainly the first widely successful board game in America. Ives followed with two other similar games in later years. All these Ives games were loosely based on the European model of a race game, even then known in Europe as the "Goose Game," or "The Game of the Goose." This game was known in Europe and England in the 16th century, and has even been traced to ancient Egypt. Simply stated, the game is a race around a track with a didactic twist. Spaces marked for good behaviors allow players to advance while landing on spaces marked for vices or bad behaviors causes backwards moves. The game of Goose was generally manufactured for many years on both sides of the Atlantic. At least in Europe, it is still popular.