Prof. Scott Nearing learned The Landlord's Game from the 1903 Arden Landlord board. Nearing taught this version of the game to students while at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Economics. Nearing said he always knew the game as Landlords. One of Nearing's students was Ruxford Tugwell. Tugwell went on to become an economics professor at Columbia University, N.Y. One of Tugwell's students went onto teach at Columbia. This was Roy Stryker. The Stryker rules refer to the game he made as 'Landlord' while Stryker's hand written notes refer to it as 'Landlord Game'. Yet, seven years earlier the game was called 'monopoly' at Columbia. This is evidenced by the 1920 at Haverford College, Philadelphia, PA, game with the name MONOPOLY written on it that can also be traced back to Columbia University. So a question arises about the arrival of the game out of Arden at Columbia under both game names. We can assume it was called Landlord's as soon as Tugwell arrived and monopoly by at least 1920. How the name change occurred if the games were learned as Landlord's through Stryker is still a question to be answered.
This particular game, with rule set, is important as it helps clarify the use of the unique lettering system - the letters help designate what property groups must be monopolized to build houses (see rules.) Compare this game with that of the Arden game from 1903, note the capital letter system to designate property groups is identical in both games. The exact letter designations combined with various use of colors use can be found on BOTH landlords and monopoly as far back as 1908. We can see evidence on the game by John Heap in 1909, called monopoly. Of course, the unique letter system traces its origin to the Arden board, a design that Lizzie Magie drew herself.
Roy Stryker is well known for his contributions in photography. Styker was head of the Farm Security Administration's Historical Section. He hired some of the best photographers in the country to document the impact of the depression and 'Dust Bowl' in rural America. The photographer's works had a tremendous influence on American photography and journalism in the years to follow. A historical profile of Roy Stryker can be found at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. A personal interview, one in which he discusses his relationship with Tugwell, can be found at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Roy and his wife spent a great deal of effort making this beautiful handmade game. Surviving are various planning sketches and notes. The cut out and painted houses are among the most wonderful I have seen. Retained were some elements of the earliest Landlord Games, like Speculation and its Ante, Absolute Necessity. The money tokens are round, same as in Magie's Economic Game Company Landlord's. Too, the traditional diagonal line across the jail space can be found in the earliest Landlord and monopoly games, and later in Dan Layman's Finance. Overall, the game gives us a great insight into game development during the 1920s.
A letter from Playgames, Inc., of Newark, N.J., dated June 1, 1934, rejects Mr. Stryker's request to produce tokens for the game. He would need to justify an initial run in the thousands. This is a most interesting find in that it shows that the Landlords Game existed in BOTH its Georgist Single Tax and monopolistic forms until the critical timeline year of 1934. This also tells us that Stryker looked to produce Landlord's for sale. Lizzie's first patent was in public domain, the second was active with Lizzie's revised version being sold, Finance was being sold by Knapp Electric, and Darrow was beginning to sell Monopoly. So was Stryker aware of any of these other games on the market? This is a question I do not yet have an answer to.
Additional reading can be found on the web site that was put together by Albert Veldhuis, the MONOPOLY LEXICON. Just scroll down a bit when you get to the page. Special thanks to Phil Orbanes for making the images and much of the background information shared on this web site; also, to the living family of Roy Stryker for their cooperation in gathering historical facts and information.