Stewart Culin and ancient Mesoamerican board games

Self-taught, his mentor was Daniel G. Brinton (Professor of Anthropology [the country’s first] at the University of Pennsylvania; an anarchist in later life, Brinton died in 1899).
Almost annually he undertook – for himself, for the Penn Museum and for private collectors - a games collecting expedition somewhere in the world (Chen 2004: 69), ‘… setting out with his fare: a lead pencil, a set of ideas, and a smile. He came back with the same smile, more ideas and many packing cases whose contents were used to reconstruct the very air of the visited country in the exhibition hall of the Brooklyn Museum’ (Bell 1979: 194-5). (Culin moved to the Brooklyn Museum in 1903, becoming the Curator of its newly established Department of Ethnology). He built an extensive collection of world games at Penn, partly from his own expeditions, partly receiving donations, such as the large collection of games from Europe donated to the University of Penn Museum by Dr. H. Carrington Bolton on 31/10/1895 (Freeman-Witthoft 2007: 272).

Pic 2: Stewart Culin in the American Southwest during the 1901 Wanamaker Expedition

Significantly, Culin had a talent for searching out the meaning of each game or object that he collected to the culture whence it came. ‘[Culin’s studies] contribute in a remarkable manner to an appreciation of native modes of thought… The paper practically creates the science of games and for the first time gives this branch its proper place in the science of man’ (Holmes 1907: xl). His extensive experience in other countries enabled him to make important comparisons - indeed connections - between cultures. For instance, take his case study of ‘A Korean Map of the World’ (1925) (pic 4):-
The circular map features on the opening page in an ‘ancient Korean atlas’ in Culin’s possession; he prints the map and on the next page the ‘cosmical diagram of the ancient Mexicans’ (p1 of Codex Fejérváry-Mayer) – prompted by noticing the presence in both of ‘that very definite and well-known Chinese symbol, of two trees growing together’ (Culin 1925: 188).

Pic 4: ‘A Korean Map of the World’

In another key example, ‘In searching for the remains of the cane game in old Mexico, the writer was deeply impressed with the many points of resemblance between the gaming circuit as described by Mr. Cushing as used in Sho’-li-we, and some of the diagrammatic paintings in the codices, leading him to the conclusion that the purpose of the latter was identical. As an illustration, the figure from the Fejérváry codex may be regarded as a divinatory, calendrical counting circuit, the forty beans or corn of the four colours of the Zuñi Sho’-li-we having their counterparts in the four coloured arms of the cross – red, yellow, blue and green – marked with small circles’ (1896: 803; emphasis added). Significantly, in nearly 300 pages, the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer is almost the only colour plate! (pic 6).

Pic 6: Double page entry from Stewart Culin’s ‘Chess and Playing-Cards’, pp 802-3

The WCE proved the ideal venue at which Culin could showcase his world-class knowledge backed up with an unrivalled display of folk objects. He was directly responsible for curating the exhibition ‘Ancient Religions, Games and Folklore’. WCE Chicago and the World Fair in Atlanta two years later were to prove ‘milestones on the topic of games’ (Chen 2004: 68). The 1893 Chicago Fair Judge’s Report complimented Culin’s object selections as ‘”the largest opportunity for thorough examination and study of that interesting subject [games] that had ever been offered in this, and perhaps, in any country”’ (ibid). His exhibit turned out to be one of the most popular of the entire Fair, and a gold-medal winner at that (ibid).
Culin’s games exhibits - presented in 12 cases on the Main Floor of the Anthropology Building - came from literally all over the world and from nearly 40 individuals (including Zelia Nuttall) and institutions (the majority were from his own personal collection) – 67 of the games are today held at the Penn Museum, University of Philadelphia, along with 444 games objects associated with Atlanta 1895 (Chrisso Boulis, Registrar, Records, Penn Museum, personal communication, 16/6/2015).

Pic 8: Traditional Parchisi and Ludo game boards; V&A Museum of Childhood Touring Exhibition, 2016

A key constituency of these Societies was museum professionals. In the ‘List of Objects for a Folk-lore Collection’ (1893) - ‘probably largely the work of Stewart Culin’ - under ‘Special Subjects for Examination’ GAMES feature both in the ‘Anglo-American field’ and in ‘Local foreign fields’ (Bassett 1893: 72). The CFS and AFS were rivals in the 1890s, composed of men and women all concerned with collections of displayable objects. Bassett wrote ‘Folk-Lore has become a subject of the day’ (Bronner 1987: 10). From 1890-93 ten Presidents of the AFS were, on taking office, connected with ethnological museums (ibid: 20). By the end of 1892 the AFS had 469 annual members, and some 60 libraries subscribed to the Journal of American Folklore (American Folklore Society 1893). Culin wrote several articles on games for the Journal of American Folklore in 1890, 1891 and 1898 (ibid: 44).
In 1893 Culin organised ‘a display of “folklore objects”, many garnered from American Folklore Society members, for the Chicago World’s Fair. Visitors to the fair marvelled at the exhibit he had assembled in eye catching arrangements. “Folklore most intimately connects this age with the greatest antiquity,” exclaimed the Chicago Record, “and of folklore no branch so directly informs us of our relation to the people of most ancient days than the games for the different stages in the history of the world”’ (ibid: 22). Culin followed WCE with an exhibition in 1895 in Atlanta – it was accompanied by the most extensive catalogue of its time, ‘Chess and Playing Cards.’

Pic 10: Leading members of the American Folklore Society; one wonders who the sole woman is, standing at the back...

Commenting on Culin’s games exhibit the Chicago Daily Tribune, July 2nd. 1893, reported ‘[The games] are shown in horizontal showcases stretching entirely across the building. To make the collection Professor Culin has ransacked every country on the globe and every age of the world back to prehistoric times.’ And Professor Fredrick Starr reported in Popular Science Monthly ‘The series of games is particularly interesting, and represents the indoor pastimes of all peoples and all times’ (1893: 613).
Finally, it’s worth noting that in the WCE 1893 Official Catalogue (Part XII, Dept M. Ethnology), discussing Culin’s Section of Ancient Religions Games and Folk-lore (Case VI, which included Patolli), the text refers to the Kiowa game Zohn Ahl (pic 12) as being ‘similar to Patoli’ and notes (p76) ‘A picture of the latter game from an early Hispano-American manuscript, reproduced from the original in Florence by its discoverer, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, is exhibited in this connection’.

In conclusion, we hope we have set the scene for the suggestion by Bonita Freeman-Witthoft (2017: 272) that ‘One of Culin’s friends, Elizabeth Magie, looked at his great game of eternal circuits, the Liverpool Codex (Fejérváry-Mayer) and saw the eternal rounds possible in board games.’ We introduce Lizzie Magie imminently...

Pic 12: ‘Cloth for Zohn Ahl’, from ‘Chess and Playing-Cards’