Inducted Year: 2013
Rubber toys first appeared in the late 1800s, when manufacturers made use of Charles Goodyear’s process for rendering rubber into malleable material. The first rubber ducks didn’t even float: they were cast solid and intended as chew toys. By the 1940s, rubber ducks developed into the iconic floating yellow figure with bright orange bill we recognize today. For many decades, most duck figures have been made of vinyl, but we still call them rubber ducks.
Rubber ducks naturally inspire […]
Chess
Inducted Year: 2013
Chess is one of the world’s oldest games. Its roots lie in an ancient Indian war game called chaturanga, in which pawns represent different types of fighting men that spread through Asia and eventually migrated to Europe. In 625, an Indian literary reference to chaturanga stated that “only from the astapada (gaming board) can one learn how to draw up a chaturanga (army).” The version of chess we play today is almost identical to the game as it […]