Who Made the Ouija Board?

Spiritualism

• Kate and Margaret Fox popularzed Spiritualism in the mid-19th century. In Spiritualist churches across the country, practitioners, called mediums, claimed the ability to contact the dead with a variety of techniques.

Early Techniques

• Table-turning involved the medium and churchgoers sitting at a table until it began tapping to letters called out by the participants. In spirit writing, the medium held a piece of wood called a "planchette" connected to a pencil as the spirit used it to compose messages.

Talking Boards

• Spirit writing and table-turning were soon deemed impractical. Spiritualists began experimenting with simpler tools such as the"talking board." It consisted of a sliding pointer and a cardboard rectangle decorated with letters and the words "yes" and "no."

Ouija Board

• In 1890, Elijah Bond, Charles Kennard and William Maupin began selling a talking board and planchette set called a"Ouija" board. They claimed "Ouija" was ancient Egyptian for "good luck."

William Fuld

• By 1901, William Fuld controlled the sale of Ouija boards. Fuld claimed the invention as his own. After his death, his heirs marketed the board until they sold it to Parker Bros. in 1966.