Image Source: en.wikipedia.org
Photograph of "Ajeeb the Wonderful" (1886) from the Harvard Theatre Collection.
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org
Photograph of "Ajeeb the Wonderful" (1886) from the Harvard Theatre Collection.
Trade card published by the Eden Musée where Ajeeb was displayed. The writing on some of the signage in this card is so small that you will need to view the enlargement to read it.
Creative Commons LicenseJeremy Norman Collection of Images - Creative Commons
Trade card published by the Eden Musée where Ajeeb was displayed. The writing on some of the signage in this card is so small that you will need to view the enlargement to read it. The card does not include Ajeeb in the illustrations but the automaton is mentioned prominently on the back of the card.
Back of the Eden Musée trade card prominently advertising "The mysterious Chess & Checker play Ajeeb."
Creative Commons LicenseJeremy Norman Collection of Images - Creative Commons
Back of the Eden Musée trade card prominently advertising "The mysterious Chess & Checker play Ajeeb."
Detail map of London, England, United Kingdom,Manhattan, New York, New York, United States

A: London, England, United Kingdom, B: Manhattan, New York, New York, United States

Ajeeb, The Chess-Playing Automaton

1868
Exhibition card for Ajeeb at Eden Musée in 1885.
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org
Exhibition card for Ajeeb at Eden Musée in 1885.
Ajeeb, a chess-playing automaton, was created by cabinet maker Charles Hooper and first presented at the Royal Polytechnical Institute in London in 1868. While purporting to be a mechanically controlled, it actually concealed a strong human chess player in its mechanism. By the 1880s it was brought to America and exhibited at the Eden Musée in 1885 and Coney Island in 1915.

Timeline Themes

Games / Sports / Simulations
Robotics / Automata
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