Who Invented Monopoly? Lizzie Magie and the History of the Game

Who invented Monopoly? Many people name Charles Darrow, but the real origin of Monopoly begins about three decades earlier, with a game designer named Lizzie Magie. This guide covers the history of Monopoly, from Lizzie Magie’s 1904 patent for The Landlord’s Game, to the Atlantic City boards that shaped the look of the game, to the $500 sale that put it in the hands of Parker Brothers in 1935.

Who invented Monopoly?

Lizzie Magie is the inventor behind the game. She received a patent in 1904 for The Landlord’s Game, the direct ancestor of Monopoly. Charles Darrow sold his own version to Parker Brothers in 1935, which is why he is so often credited, but the idea, the board and many of the rules had already been circulating among players for years.

Lizzie Magie and The Landlord’s Game

Lizzie Magie was a follower of the economist Henry George, who argued for a single tax on land. She designed The Landlord’s Game to show players how landlords gain an advantage under the land system, and her patent was granted in 1904. The game was meant as a teaching tool, and it came with two sets of rules. In one, players worked toward shared prosperity under a land tax. In the other, players built monopolies and tried to bankrupt their opponents.

Magie sold her game to friends at first, and it then passed from player to player, often as hand-copied boards. That chain of players is a large part of the history of Monopoly, because by the time Darrow encountered the game it had already changed several times along the way.

How Atlantic City shaped the board

One link in that chain ran through Ruth Hoskins, a teacher at a Quaker school in Atlantic City, New Jersey, who helped bring the game to the seaside city. Players there gave the properties the names of Atlantic City streets, which is why the U.S. version of the board features Park Place, Baltic Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue and Mediterranean Avenue. Magie’s own boards had used generic names.

From Charles Darrow to Parker Brothers

Charles Darrow played the Atlantic City version of the game in the early 1930s and went on to sell it himself under the name Monopoly. He chose the second set of Magie’s rules, in which the only goal is to bankrupt your opponents, and Parker Brothers bought his version in 1935.

That same year, George Parker visited Lizzie Magie and bought the rights to her patent for $500, in November 1935. It is the clearest answer to the question of who invented Monopoly: the game that millions of people play today is built on her design, and it was bought from her for a single payment of $500.

What was the original purpose of Monopoly?

The original purpose was educational. Lizzie Magie created The Landlord’s Game to show the harm done when land is held by private monopolies, and to promote Henry George’s idea of a single tax on land. The version most people know today, where the goal is to bankrupt everyone else, is the opposite of the lesson she intended.

Sources: The Public Domain Review; Wikipedia: Monopoly (game).

How did Monopoly get its name?

Players began calling the game “the monopoly game” because play centered on monopolizing properties, and the name stuck. Lizzie Magie herself had called it The Landlord’s Game, and the version Charles Darrow later sold carried the shorter name Monopoly.

Sources: WETA: No “Monopoly” on Monopoly; Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia: Monopoly.

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