Cardroom Social History

On the cardroom as a social setting — the saloons and parlors and back rooms where card games have actually been played, and the social, economic, and gendered histories that have shaped who has been welcome to play and what the rules have actually allowed.

1 article

The Saloon, the Backroom, and the Working-Class Cardplaying Subculture That the Cultural Memory Has Largely Forgotten

The 19th-century American saloon was a substantial cardplaying setting whose cultural footprint has been largely obscured by the cardroom-folklore tradition. The actual…

Eleanor Hartshorne May 15, 2026 7 min read