Manufacturer
SOMERVILLE INDUSTRIES LTD.
Somerville "Railroads" Game
Credit LineGift of Dr. J. Malcolm Smith, London, Ontario, 1999
Object number1999.003.180
Label TextIn 1932, London’s Somerville Limited, a paper-box-making firm established in 1886, began making jigsaw puzzles. The market for this pastime had exploded as cash-strapped Canadians looked for inexpensive entertainment during the Great Depression.
This was only the beginning. In 1934, Somerville signed an agreement to manufacture Milton Bradley games. With the Second World War and limited access to metal, the company became Canada’s largest producer of wooden toys. And in the postwar years, it acquired rights to manufacture a range of popular brand name toys, among them Playskool.
Somerville was Canada’s most diversified toy manufacturer by the 1960s. The London plant closed in the 1990s.
NameGame, Card
After 1946
