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A Game For Educating Children -- Revised & Approved By Noted Science Educator Margaret Bryan
Rare science board game first published by John Wallis in 1804.
The game is based on the traditional Game of the Goose. Published by John Wallis, the game board credits Margaret Bryan as its creator. Margaret Bryan ran a girl's school in Blackheath and was author of a number of popular works on science. Wallis evidently felt that her association with this game would be a testament to its accuracy, as well as highlighting its suitability for girls' education.
The board has 35 numbered 'squares' depicting astronomical objects, instruments and principles as well as astronomers (Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, Nicholas Copernicus, Isaac Newton) and moral lessons (e.g. a studious and idle boy, the county gaol (jail) and an army volunteer). One square shows the man in the moon as an example of ignorance in astronomy. At the center is a large image of Flamsteed House, named for Britain's first Royal Astronomer, John Flamsteed.
The game involves much rote learning as well as moral lessons en route: within the rules of the game accuracy of knowledge and zeal are rewarded, while ignorance and idleness are punished.
Margaret Bryan was an English natural philosopher, educator and the author of standard scientific textbooks. She was schoolmistress of a school located at various times in Blackheath, at Cadogan Place, and in Margate at Bryan House . Her earliest publication was the Compendious System of Astronomy (1797), a collection of her lectures on astronomy. In 1806, she published Lectures on Natural Philosophy, a textbook on the fundamentals of physics and astronomy. In 1815, she published another staple text, Astronomical and Geographical Class Book for Schools.
Provenance: Jay Kislak.
![[Moon by Domenico Cassini]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/82740.jpg)
