Milton Bradley

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This article is about the board game pioneer. For other uses, see Milton Bradley (disambiguation).

Milton Bradley (November 5, 1836 - May 30, 1911) was an American game pioneer, credited by many with launching the board game industry in North America with Milton Bradley Company.

A native of Vienna, Maine, in his late teens Bradley chose to pursue the printing trade, including lithography. He set up the first color lithography shop in the state of Massachusetts, established in Springfield 1860. Eventually, Bradley moved forward with an idea he had for a board game which he called The Checkered Game of Life, an early version of what would later become The Game of Life.

He also invented the paper cutter. In 2004, he was posthumously inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame along with George Ditomassi of Milton Bradley. Through the 20th century, the company he founded dominated the production of American games, with titles like Candy Land, Operation and Battleship. The company is now a subsidiary of Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based Hasbro.