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Game of Little Volunteer

Game of Little Volunteer
Title
Game of Little Volunteer
Date 
1898
Medium 
Cardboard, paper, lead, metal
Dimensions 
Overall: 1 1/8 x 21 1/8 x 12 1/2 in. ( 2.9 x 53.7 x 31.8 cm )
Description 
"Game of Little Volunteer" board game with a paper covered cardboard and wood box with the paper gameboard applied to the bottom half on the box; board with a snaking path of red and blue checkerboard squares between army vignettes such as "Drill", "Canteen" and "Shot, Go back to Hospital"; box cover chromolithographed with a little boy in a fez marching with a drum and a dog in a paper hat holding a rifle on the left and a image of Teddy Roosevelt as a Rough Rider on horseback in the right corner; box cover inscribed, "THE GAME OF/ The/ Little/ Volunteer/ COPYRIGHT 1898 BY/ McLOUGHLIn BROS./ NEW YORK."; playing pieces include a double arrow spinner and a lead figure.
Credit Line 
The Liman Collection
Object Number 
2000.378
Marks 
lithographed: on the box cover: "THE GAME OF/ The/ Little/ Volunteer/ COPYRIGHT 1898 BY/ McLOUGHLIn BROS./ NEW YORK."
Gallery Label 
The object of this game is "to see which little Volunteer can rise from the ranks to be Commander-in-Chief." Grisly images showing bloodshed were apparently not troubling to children and parents of the 1890s.
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.