Pit Card Game, Bull and Bear Edition: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Parker Brothers developed The Pit card game in 1904, with this Bull and Bear edition dating between 1912 and 1915. Pit is a fast paced card game simulating the open outcry bidding system of the commodity exchange used at the Chicago Board of Trade which was known as the “Pit.” The original game consisted of seven commodities—wheat (100 points), barley (85 points), corn (75 points), rye (70 points), oats (60 points), hay (50 points) and flax (40 points)—which players would exchange until one player held nine cards of the same commodity and announced they have “a corner” on the market. The player gets the points for that commodity; doubling their points they hold the Bull, while the player holding the Bear loses 20 points. The game is played until a player reaches a set amount of points. Like many early 19th century games such as “Monopoly” or “Life,” Pit introduces children to modern American society in a fun and exciting way, bringing a small lesson into a youngster’s playtime.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Object Name: game, card
• ID Number: 1986.0814.11
• accession number: 1986.0814
• catalog number: 1986.814.11
• Credit Line: Dr. Mary Eloise Green and Earle M. and Jewell S. Green
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.