Photo of Eleanor Reynolds Abbott

Eleanor Reynolds Abbott

1910 - 1988
Inventor
Canada USA

Personal Information

Born: 1910

Died: 1988

Country of Birth: Canada

Nationality: USA

Ethnicity: White

Education

Unknown

Professional Life

Field of Study: Inventor

Institution/Corporation: Milton Bradley

Degrees & Memberships: None found

Awards & Achievements

Awards: None found

Achievements: 1948 invented Candy Land while a patient in a hospital in San Diego while recuperating from polio; game was meant to distract the children in her ward; she was a teacher by profession

Inventor of Candy Land

Original game featured a boy in a leg brace because braces were common apparatuses for polio patients

She created the game to entertain children in the hospital ward she was in who had polio like her; the game was meant to distract them from their pain

she donated all the money she received from the game to charities dedicated to serving children in need

the game was inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 2005

she contracted polio at age 36

she scratched out the original game on butcher paper

she sold the game to Milton Bradley & it went on sale in time for Christmas 1949

almost nothing is known about her life except for her illness, hospital stay & creation of Candy Land