Monopoly Game History

History of the Monopoly Game

Streetsigns at the corner of Boardwalk and Park Place

The game of Monopoly has an amazing and interesting history. The first version, a folk game using home made, hand drawn boards and household items as tokens was called the Landlord's game. Lizzy J. Magie patented the game in 1904.

The game later went through several iterations and names including, "Landlord", "Landlord's Game and Prosperity", "Finance", "Monopoly", and "Inflation". Parker Brothers actually published "Landlord's Game" in 1939. The gameboard for that game looks nothing like the current version, though it does include many familiar landmarks.

There's quite a bit more about the game. Below you'll find links that we believe have the best historical resources.

History

Monopoly, the game we've all grown up with has a very interesting history. It's not your average game. To learn more about the history of the Monopoly game, here are some great sites:

Title	Hits
Landlord's Game to Monopoly If you've ever wondered where Monopoly got its roots, and the evolution of the game, check out this site. Very well done!	325
Monopoly: Present at the Creation (includes Audio) A great article from National Public Radio. There is a lot of good infomation here, as well as a link to the audio version of the article.	256
The Fascinating Game of Finance In 1932 Daniel W. Layman, Jr. and Knapp Electronic began marketing a game called "Finance", based on the original folk game "monopoly". Layman called it "Finance" because he knew that the real name was in the public domain.	258
Anti-Monopoly This site is dedicated to the legal battle between the REAL creators ofthe Monopoly game, and the original.	270
Who Invented Monopoly? Monopoly is a public domain folk game, that has been played since the 1920's, and based upon a game called the Landlord's Game. This page goes into detail about the history of the game.	270
The Monopolization of Monopoly A 1976 San Francisco Bay Guardian article by Burton H. Wolfe.	225
Monopoly History According to Hasbro The history of the game Monopoly, according to Hasbro. Curiously, they mentioned that Mr. Darrow "showed" the game to Parker Brothers, but didn't mention whether he owned the rights or not.	268
Monopoly Rolls Dice, Changes Look CNN Article discussing Hasbro's new Here and Now Edition of Monopoly.	264
Play The Landlords Game & Prosperity Blog post with boardgame and rules PDF of the original Landlord's game (Monopoly predecessor).	633

Monopoly Game History

History of the Monopoly Game

History

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