The tax would be assessed according to the usefulness, size, and location of the land. Georgists proposed a single tax on land instead of income. Magie was a staunch advocate of Georgist philosophy, a progressive economic theory named after Henry George. At the time, women held fewer than 1% of all patents. She was also a short story and poetry writer, comedian, stage actress, feminist, and engineer.Īt the age of 26, Magie received her first patent for an invention to make the typewriting process easier by allowing paper to go through rollers. In the early 1880s, she moved from Illinois to the D.C./Maryland area and worked as a stenographer, typist, and news reporter. She believed the only people who were free in America were white men. Its goal was to show the limited opportunities and status for women and African American people in America. To highlight her views, she purchased an advertisement auctioning herself off as a “young woman American slave” looking for a husband to own her. Magie was an outspoken feminist and a critic of the role that women were relegated to at that time. Her father was a newspaper publisher and an abolitionist. Fortunately, she was born to a family who encouraged her to use her intellect. Lizzie Magie was born in 1866 at a time when women had few options in life. First, let me tell you why I am highlighting Lizzie Magie for Women’s History month. The board game, Monopoly, bears little resemblance to the game that Magie patented and even thwarts the original purpose of her game, which she named The Landlord’s Game.īut we’ll get to that. As part of Anspach’s decade-long legal defense, he discovered that the true story of Monopoly was missing a few game pieces. Her patent would have been lost to history had Parker Brothers not tried to sue Professor Ralph Anspach for trademark infringement when he offered an Anti-Monopoly game. Before her invention, games were played on linear boards. She was the first developer of a square boardgame. The original game was invented and patented by Elizabeth Magie in 1904. The game of Monopoly went through several iterations before Darrow played it at a friend’s house in Atlantic City and called it his own invention. Darrow claimed that he was the sole inventor and Parker Brothers purchased the rights to the game, giving the family royalties in perpetuity.Įxcept that is only the tail end of the story. Only then did the major game companies take notice. A Philadelphia department store, Wanamaker’s, agreed to sell it and it became a hit. Oh no, you say, that was Charles Darrow, who created the game during the depression, was rejected by the major game companies, and produced it himself. I hadn’t heard of her either until herstory (sic) was revealed in 2015.Įlizabeth (aka Lizzie) Magie invented the game Monopoly. To celebrate Women’s History month, this year I am going to profile Lizzie Magie.
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