Milton Bradley, Game Designer and Education Champion: Milton Bradley and the Kindergarten Movement

Milton Bradley’s wife Vilona died on March 13, 1867 of tuberculosis. After her passing, Milton’s parents moved in with him, and Milton’s father got a job at the Milton Bradley company.

Milton remarried in 1869 to a school teacher named Nellie Thayer. She took Milton and his father to a speech by Elizabeth Peabody, a leader of the Kindergarten movement in America. 

The Kindergarten Movement began in Germany, lead by educator Friedrich Froebel. It emphasized the importance of education for young children, and learning through creative play. It emphasized not only intellectual learning but also emotional and social development.

Milton was greatly affected by Peabody’s speech. Afterwards, he turned to his father and said “Papa! That’s just how you taught me!”

For the rest of his life he was a tireless proponent of early childhood education. He published translations of the works of Friedrich Fröbel, and Emilie Pousson. The Milton Bradley company began publishing “Kindergarten Review”, a newsletter for Kindergarten teachers.

Most importantly, he began manufacturing and selling school supplies at very low cost. He published a separate catalog entitled “Bradley’s School Supplies and Kindergarten Materials” that had 1250 different items for sale, from teaching materials to educational toys as well as chairs and desks and the world’s first one-armed paper cutter (which he later patented)! 

Many of the shareholders balked at the emphasis placed on Kindergarten supplies and their low-profit margin. In 1874 Milton’s friend George Tapley bought out the dissenting shareholders and donated four of his own buildings to the Milton Bradley company.

Prominent educator William Mowry  later called Milton Bradley “the pioneer and chief promoter of kindergarten work in America.”

After he retired from the company, Milton said this about the Kindergarten movement and his participation in it:

“In using the word success, I do not wish to confine its meaning to that cheap interpretation which sees only the glitter of gold or the glamour of illusive fame. In my case, I cannot overestimate the feeling of satisfaction which has been with me all these years at the thought that I have been identified with the movement and have done something, if only something ordinary in character, to place the kindergarten on its present solid foundation.”