Editing Milton Bradley Company (section)

===Kindergarten movement===
The Milton Bradley Company took a new direction in 1869 after Milton Bradley went to hear a lecture about the [[kindergarten]] movement by early education pioneer, [[Elizabeth Peabody]]. Peabody promoted the philosophy of the German scholar [[Friedrich Fröbel|Friedrich Froebel]]. Froebel believed and advocated that children learn and develop through creative activities. Bradley would spend much of the rest of his life promoting the kindergarten movement both personally and through the Milton Bradley Company.<ref name="Company Name">{{cite web |url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Milton-Bradley-Company-Company-History.html |title=Milton Bradley Company |work=FundingUniverse.com |access-date=April 3, 2011 |archive-date=February 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215005246/http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Milton-Bradley-Company-Company-History.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Bradley's kindergarten material and school aids. (1896) (14589848129).jpg|thumb|150px|Bradley's kindergarten material and school aids, 1896]]
In the late 1860s, Bradley became involved in the kindergarten movement. Deeply invested in the cause, his company began manufacturing educational items such as colored papers and paints. The company was hurt by Bradley's generosity as he gave these materials away free of charge. Due to the [[Long Depression]] of the late 1870s, his investors told him either his kindergarten work must go or they would go. Bradley chose to keep his kindergarten work. His friend George Tapley bought the interest of the lost investors and took over as president of the Milton Bradley Company.<ref name="Company Name"/>

Springfield's first kindergarten students were Milton Bradley's two daughters, and the first teachers in Springfield were Milton, his wife, and his father.<ref name=Kindergarten>{{cite web |url=http://www.froebelweb.org/web2029.html |title=Milton Bradley Froebel's Kindergarten Gifts |access-date=April 3, 2011 |archive-date=October 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241002103052/http://www.froebelweb.org/web2029.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Milton Bradley's company's involvement with kindergartens began with the production of "gifts", the term used by Froebel for the geometric wooden play things that he felt were necessary to properly structure children's creative development. Bradley spent months devising the exact shades in which to produce these materials; his final choice of six pigments of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet would remain the standard colors for children's art supplies through the 20th century.<ref name="Company Name"/>

By the 1870s, the company was producing dozens of games and capitalizing on fads. Milton Bradley became the first manufacturer in America to make [[croquet]] sets. The sets included wickets, mallets, balls, stakes, and an authoritative set of rules to play by that Bradley himself had created from oral tradition and his own sense of fair play.<ref name=Information/> In 1880, the company began making [[jigsaw puzzles]].

The company's educational supplies turned out to be a large portion of their income at the turn of the century. The company produced supplies that any grade school teacher could use, such as toy money, multiplication sticks, and movable clock dials. Milton Bradley continued producing games, particularly parlor games played by adults. These included ''Visit to the Gypsies'', ''Word Gardening'', ''Happy Days in Old New England'', and ''Fortune Telling''. The company also created jigsaw puzzles of wrecked vehicles, which were popular among young boys.<ref name=Information/>