This week’s episode of PBS’ History Detectives has a fun segment on the history behind the board game Monopoly. Although official company history only mentions Charles Darrow as the inventor, Monopoly was based on earlier games, most notably The Landlord’s Game invented by Lizzie J. Magie, a Virginia woman who received a patent for the game in 1904. The earliest Monopoly boards list both her patent and Darrow’s. Magie’s game was meant to teach the economic philosophy of Henry George, proponent of the “single tax.” It evolved as it spread, ending up markedly different in its goals. Parker Brothers bought the rights to Lizzie Magie’s patent for $500.