Chapter 1 A Life of Work A Life of Work A Life of Work A Life of Work A Life of Work and Play Begins and Play Begins Milton Bradley was born on November 8 1836 in Vienna Maine Milton’s lifetime saw many changes When he was born the Industrial Revolution had started in the United States He was an adult when the Civil War began Just before the war he started a revolutionary game company that would change playtime forever During the mid-1800s many people were moving from farms to cities They were looking for a new way of life Milton’s family moved five times while he was growing up The Bradleys 4 Milton Bradley combined work and play from a very young age and became a successful businessman
Lowell Massachusetts the city where Milton spent his childhood finally settled in Lowell Massachusetts There Milton’s father Lewis worked in a textile mill Lewis sometimes helped his son with his homework He gave Milton objects such as apples to use to help him solve math problems This made homework feel more like play than work Milton continued to mix work and play for the rest of his life Today more than 100 fun and successful board games bear his name Chances are you your parents grandparents and even great-grandparents have all played Milton Bradley games 5
Chapter 2 A Young Man A Young Man A Young Man A Young Man A Young Man with Bright Ideas with Bright Ideas In the early 1850s Bradley attended Lowell High School There he met George Tapley Tapley understood Bradley’s creative side and admired his talents The two became lifelong friends After graduating from high school in 1854 Bradley planned to study drafting He wanted to attend the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University But first he had to earn some money At the time many young women were moving to the city to take factory jobs They lived in rooming houses But many of these women were lonesome for home Bradley noticed that they often wrote letters to their friends and family members So he began to sell stationery He sold it door-to-door at the rooming houses This was Bradley’s first experience as an entrepreneur He was good at it and he loved being his own boss By the fall of 1854 Bradley had earned enough money to start college 6
In the mid-1800s only about 1 percent of US males had a college degree But Bradley was eager to learn drafting skills and earn a degree of his own However before he could finish his parents moved again Bradley went with them to Hartford Connecticut He never earned a degree Bradley’s former university is now called the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences 7
