Election Game

Paper-covered boards with cloth hinges, 18.5 x 10.5 inches. In three panels, folding out to 32 inches. About Very Good with bumping and rubbing to boards, oil stain, yellowing and light soil to map. Litho split along hinges, but no loss—a good restoration candidate. Not in OCLC, AGPI, BoardGameGeek, contemporary ads, etc.

An unrecorded election game, illuminated only by tracking down the patent date from the cover—Patent no. 476,146, issued to Oscar Von Hunersdorff. The filing states the game “portray(s) a political election in which several political parties having contesting candidates are represented." It includes directions that outline three routes with 74 stops before reaching Washington, D.C.—blue (Republican) starts in Philadelphia, red (Democrat) in New York City, and white (Prohibition) in Des Moines. The patent calls for a 6-sided die, three pawns (red, white, and blue), 15 chips (five of each color, numbered 1-5), and an unspecified number of black chips. Fortunately, the map is the only unique object, and the instructions survive in an unexciting but helpful printout of the patent provided with the game.

Other early American presidential election games, like Parker Brothers Presidential Election (1892) and The Game of Politics (Reed Toy Co., 1888) had handsome graphics and were designed to offer insight into the electoral college and unique structure of voting in the United States. This Election Game is essentially a "roll-and-move" game. It does not have beautiful lithography, and it does not help illuminate electoral idiosyncrasies (although it arguably looks like how it feels the electoral college and primary elections work). But, it is notable as an early American election game, a representation of 3-party politics, a memento of the Prohibition Party, and, especially, a highly creative civic expression designed and published by two German immigrants.

Anton Winters (c.1831-1893) is the only name printed on the game. He immigrated from Germany around 1855 and by 1870 was an established importer and wholesale dealer of "Toys and Fancy Goods" based in Philadelphia. Oscar Von Hunersdorff (1863-1911) immigrated in 1886; he is listed as a bookkeeper and bank clerk in the 1900/10 censuses. The men were likely connected through the German community in Philadelphia, which Winters philanthropically supported. Winters did not typically publish his own games—there are none credited to him in any database or contemporary ads searched online. Hunersdorff also has no other patents or publishing credits. Winters’ death in 1893 may partially account for the game’s limited production, but why, and to what degree, it was produced at all, remains strictly speculation.