The word-making game Anagrams was popular during the second half of the nineteenth century. In the 1930s when Alfred Butts invented his word game, eventually called Scrabble, he based it on both crossword puzzles and the classic Anagrams. Like so many other games from this era, it taught spelling and words while it entertained.
Parker Brothers of New York made this fancy wooden block version of Anagrams, for playing either Letters, or Anagrams.