This is the fifth article in the Playing Inside: Board Games, Video Games, and the Indoors series, which explores the ways that board games, video games, and other types of indoor play impact and guide our understanding of the environment.

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In 2022, when I held the Haas Curatorial Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Science History Institute Library and Museum (SHI) in Philadelphia, I was tasked with finding objects that would illustrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Clean Water Act for a community program. The assignment reminded me that I had seen a reference to a board game about clean water in a list of recommended teaching materials from the early 1970s. I set off to find a copy of the game to use for the program. It soon became clear that one game about water was only the tip of the board game iceberg.

 To my surprise, I found out that game designers have released numerous environmentally-themed board games produced in the half-century since the modern environmental movement swept into the public consciousness. The games reflected how game designers actively responded to the crises and issues of their eras. In the early 1970s, people could play titles that spoke to air pollution and overpopulation through Smog (1970), and The Population (1971). Players curious about protecting animals after the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 could play Endangered Species (1976) to learn about animals under threat from habitat loss, trafficking, and pollution. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, Oil Spill (1990) provided an informative way to learn about maritime safety protocols and inspections as players moved oil tankers through treacherous waters. Similarly, the Clearwater Horizon disaster provided the impetus for The Spill (2022), where players cooperate to stop an oil spill and save wildlife.

The depth and richness of environmentally-themed board games and their responsiveness to historical trends in the environmental movement created a prime opportunity for creating a new collection. In close collaboration with other members of the SHI staff, I began curating a collection of games for the museum for preservation and display.

Since collecting every environmentally themed game ever produced would have taken more money and space than we had available, we selected representative samples with visitor appeal in mind. Games needed to quickly convey a story to public audiences even as static objects. Visually striking games that added pops of color to a history museum where many photographs and exhibit items came in black and white or industrial gray could grab a person’s attention even within a Plexiglass case.

In order to appeal to a wide range of visitor ages, we also wanted to include games that appealed to children and adults. Game designers have targeted audiences from pre-literate toddlers all the way up to graduate students. For example, Litterbug (1970) is a game aimed at very young children. Children playing the brightly colored game move along the board and deposit small pieces of paper representing different types of litter into a trash bin. In contrast, Clean Water [first released as Dirty Water](1970) was designed to teach adults about upstream and downstream effects. In the game, players try to balance an aquatic ecosystem while grappling with multiple sources of pollutants. One scenario has players winning federal grants to advance. According to the game’s creators, the game came out of conversations with colleagues who found themselves frustrated with the discourse around pollution at the time. As one of the designers, a trained ecologist, told a reporter for UPI, “Businessmen and students didn’t seem to understand the important relationships between policy considerations, like job loss and what not, and people like housewives had no idea what it was about.” The designers thought that using a board game could help explain the complex topic. By collecting both ends of the age spectrum, we illuminated a diversity of approaches directed at different audiences.

Curating this collection raised a philosophical matter. Were these games museum objects meant for display, or did their value actually derive from playing the games? We addressed this issue by acquiring multiple copies of games. Versions intended for preservation stay in the museum collections and are handled as exhibit and research objects while visitors may actively interact with copies intended for handling. This approach paid off: some shortcomings only emerged during play. Curiously, almost every copy of Smog (1970) available for acquisition seemed pristine and lightly played. This seemed like an strange coincidence until fellows at the Institute tried to play it. Based on scoring points for tax deductions, wind changes, and voter whims, it was in essence a board game that required players to fill out an in-game tax return while tracking wind direction—hardly a combination for a popular game. 

Creating a museum collection always relies on the time and expertise of multiple departments, not just curators, and this collection was no different.  Collecting board games to a professional standard required significant institutional support, not simply for the acquisition and preservation of these games, but also to ensure accessibility for visitors. As games in long shipping boxes began arriving from across the country, the museum’s conservation and archival staff encountered challenges. Some games arrived with incomplete parts. Others contained parts that will deteriorate over time. For example, one oil-themed game relies on an inflatable balloon underneath the game board. As the plastic degrades over time, it will likely stick to itself and become unusable as a game. The many pieces involved with even simple games took a toll on collections staff who documented and cataloged individual pieces. The library’s digital collections librarian professionally photographed the collection, enabling access to the games through the SHI website. Frontline museum educators spent significant amounts of time learning how to play the games in order to explain it to visitors. Creating exhibits with museum collections drew in even more staff, including exhibit designers, digital content specialists, and the communications office.

The collecting efforts around board games culminated at museum’s highly successful  Board Game Night and the opening of an exhibit on the board games, title Playing Dirty. (You can find the digital exhibit here.) By advertising at places such as the local board game stores and board game cafes, Game Night drew audiences who might not have otherwise discovered the museum. Visitors of all ages tried their hand at playing both contemporary and vintage games. Many stayed for hours to play. An underground ecosystem emerged, as young children ducked underneath tables pretending to be tree seedlings breaking through soil, emulating the gameplay in the contemporary plant-focused Photosynthesis game (2017). Playing these games in a museum setting provided an opportunity for visitors to learn more about the historical contexts of the game then they would have playing in their living room.

Most audiences are intimately familiar with board games, making the entertainment objects an accessible way to introduce new subjects and historical contexts. From the perspective of exhibit design, board games hold significant appeal. In a world where interactive gizmos and doodads can cost thousands of dollars and frequently break, board games are affordable and relatively robust. Visitors can engage with them over minutes and hours, not seconds. Even when used as static items rather than for play, their familiarity as everyday objects and their colorful designs compel visitors to take a closer look. In doing so, they will connect with the past in new ways.

Further Information and Resources:

• Sherri Sheu, “Money Talks: Applying Numismatics to Environmental Board Games,” Science Institute Museum & Library.
• Board Game Collection at Science Institute Museum & Library