Vintage Board Games Displayed At Heritage House In Riverside County

RIVERSIDE, CA — Vintage board games dating back well over a century will be on display until the week of Thanksgiving at the Museum of Riverside's Heritage House, offering visitors insights into what it took to be a winner in the Gilded Age and periods following it, officials said Tuesday.

The "It's Your Move: The Games We Play" exhibit will be available Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m., until Nov. 20 in the Victorian home at 8193 Magnolia Ave. owned and operated by the museum.

Long-forgotten table-top contests such as "Geographical Game of the Old World" and "How Silas Popped the Question," produced in the late 19th century, will be among the featured pieces.

"Win or lose, people have played games for thousands of years," according to a museum statement. "The American games market commercialized as the industrial revolution unfolded during the 19th century. Advances in printing technologies -- particularly lithography -- and growth in leisure time for many contributed to a demand for games."

The close-out event will be on Nov. 19, when the museum hosts "Play the Game: Exhibition Finale," during which visitors will be invited to collaboratively invent a game, complete with rules drafted on the spot.

"Both board games and card games tested players' knowledge, patience, tolerance for risk and problem-solving abilities," the museum said. "Games might be all about luck, or they might require skill at strategizing. All required social and emotional control to keep from earning the title 'sore loser."'

The exhibition was curated by museum Collections Registrar Katie Grimm.

More information is available at the museum of riverside.