In the past, when pubs and taverns routinely put boxes of wooden matches on the bar and tables for customer use, matchstick puzzles were a common activity.
David Parlett in The Oxford History of Board Games, Oxford University Press, 1999, page 159 describes the game of NIM in this manner:
"In its simplest version each of two players in turn removes one, two, or three matchsticks from a row of thirteen, and the player who takes the last match wins, or loses if so agreed in advance. ... generically referred to as 'Nim'... This comes from an Old English word meaning 'take' (cf. German 'nehmen'), and is normally applied to a branch of recreational mathematics typified by the game of Matchsticks."
Pieter van Delft and Jack Botermans (Creative Puzzles of the World, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1978, pages 49-56) state that long-term convicts sometimes passed their time with matchstick puzzles. Some references indicate that this was also a game played by sailors on long voyages.
In lieu of matches per se, this Museum copy makes use of plastic which offers the same puzzle opportunities. Acquired in 1970, the multi-colored pieces of plastic are shaped like wooden matches, and enable their use in creating the puzzle figures illustrated in the instructions enclosed in the box.
An interactive computerized version of the game of Nim and other matchstick puzzles appeared on the market in 1996 as part of the CDRom package Smart Games, distributed by RandomSoft, a division of Random House Publishers.
NOTE: This page was originally created and posted on the Web on October 6, 1997. Subsequently it has been modified and periodically updated. Last update April 7, 2010