The Jumble Club

The records of The Jumble Club, a group dedicated to playing whist (and *only* whist) which thrived in Glasgow, Scotland, approximately between 1799 and 1877.
The records consist of 4 ledgers containing minutes of meetings, with additional meeting minutes, inventories, insurance policy, checkbook. flyers and other related papers and ephemera.

And they came in a lovely metal coffer, complete with a set of keys, none of which fit the box lock.

Prison playing cards

A selection of handmade and delicately stencil-printed playing cards,
made by inmates of Russian prisons, ca. 1980s - 1990s.

Playing Card sample book (Irish Free State)

Another sample book, for cards produced in, and proudly representing, the Irish Free State, ca. 1936.

Playing Card sample book (Germany)

A saleman’s sample book for a line of playing cards produced in Northern Germany, circa the early 1950s.

 

Eee!-vacuation

From the “Vacuation” card game, England, ca. 1940

dos a dos a dos a dos a dos a dos a dos a dos

Back patterns for American playing cards
(from the Cary Collection)

USA3

USA167

USA10

USA9

USA21

USA6

USA2

USA7

Hearts (For Presidents’ Day)

Portrait of George Washington on a playing card, Hearts (Cary USA 204)

There’s a moon in the sky.

It’s called the moon.

ASTRONOMIA [card game] / LONDON / PUBLISHED BY F.G. MOON,

20, THREADNEEDLE STREET / 1829

in the Cary Collection of Playing Cards

Welcome!

Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities features new acquisitions, unique documents, and visual and textual curiosities from the collections of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. This ongoing exhibition is curated by Tim Young, Associate Curator of the Modern Books and Manuscripts Collection, and Nancy Kuhl, Associate Curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature. Additional information about these and other materials in the Beinecke Library’s collections can be found at the Library’s website: http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/