Ouija board: How a toy patent paved the way for Nationwide Love (10 photos)

Today, the Ouija board looks almost the same as it did in the 19th century, when it was first invented. The only difference is that they were previously made primarily of wood, whereas now they can be made from any material, even printed paper.





In popular culture, this otherworldly gadget occupies an ambiguous place: it is actively ridiculed, yet no less actively used in a wide variety of circles. And this has been the case for two centuries. However, the history of this object is not fully known and is shrouded in mystery. The earliest surviving mention of the board in an advertisement dates back to February 1891, appearing in a New York newspaper.



In that advertisement, the invention promised to answer questions "about the past, present, and future with astonishing accuracy," as well as establish connections "between the known and the unknown, the tangible and intangible." The advertisement claimed that the board had received Patent Office approval before being marketed. And that's absolutely true.





The board owes its origin to the Victorian fascination with spiritualism. In 19th-century America, attempts to contact the dead were commonplace. Death and the spirit world were perceived much more closely than they are today, and the church fully endorsed this attitude. In 1848, spiritualism experienced a real boom thanks to the Fox sisters of upstate New York, who claimed to be in contact with the other world.

The Civil War spurred this interest: people sought mediums to stay in touch with departed loved ones. Even Mary Todd Lincoln tried to communicate with her dead son this way.



One way to communicate with spirits was to recite the alphabet out loud, waiting for the knock that would sound on the desired letter. The dialogue, accordingly, would drag on for a long time. Kennard Novelty Company realized early on that the market needed a simple means of communication and released its Ouija board.



Kate, Margaret, and Leah Fox were three sisters from New York who became famous for allegedly communicating with spirits and conducting séances.

The name is believed to be derived from the French and German words for "da," but researchers have discovered that the story behind the name is far more mystical. Legend has it that the board itself came up with its name, but it was Helen Peters—the daughter-in-law of Elijah Bond, one of the co-founders of Kennard Novelty Co., and a renowned medium—who helped it acquire the name. She simply asked the board what to call it. It responded with a mysterious word, which she claimed meant something like a wish for good luck.



Having developed the board, the inventors began filing patents. The first clerk at the Patent Office didn't take the application seriously at first... until the board spelled out his own name in front of him.



The patent didn't explain how exactly the device worked, only that it worked. This only added to the product's mystique and made it even more marketable.



Elijah Bond's tombstone in the form of a Ouija board

With the advent of the Ouija board, American newspapers began publishing a multitude of strange stories, including those related to crime. There were cases of people claiming that spirits had driven them to commit crimes: supposedly, after séances, they received instructions from the other world. In 1930, for example, The New York Times published an article that read like a horror movie script: two Buffalo women, accused of murdering a third, claimed in their defense that the board had demanded it of them.



Ouija boards are still popular today. Some psychologists believe they truly connect the known with the unknown, not through spirits, but by bringing to the surface the unconscious thoughts of the participants in the session.



Still from the film "Ouija Board" (2014)