The For the Love of the Game exhibition is curated by the Head of Preservation, Processing & Exhibitions Danielle Creech at WashU Libraries. Read on to hear more about this exhibition in Danielle’s own words: 

“Like a lot of people, I grew up playing the classics with my friends and family – Hi Ho Cherry-o and Candyland as a young child, and, as an older kid, Monopoly, Life, and Trivial Pursuit. I’ll be honest, I hate a lot of those games now (too much luck and not enough strategy needed), but I still have a lot of the old beat-up boxes in my closet. 

“In grad school, I stumbled into a group of friends that introduced me to the new wave of Eurogames and all their deeply convoluted rule books. It was love at first play. I’d call it a hobby, but even though adulthood has made it a lot harder to wrangle a group of friends together for board game night, I still keep buying games. I have over two hundred games now (over twice that if you count expansions), and I’m a sucker for a good component. 

“Kickstarter has absolutely ruined my bank account with all the deluxe versions and stretch goals. So given all that, I can’t call this a hobby. It’s a collection that dreams of making it to the table, and if being INSIDE a table is the closest this collection can get, I’ll take it.”