What does one do on a rainy day? Today, the answer might be to play for hours on one's cell phone. But in a day before phones, before computers, before television and even before radio, the answer tended to be some sort of game or activity. Word games, charades, parlour games, musical activities and more were all part of the Victorian's in-home entertainment "system."

In-Door Amusements (Illustrated London Almanack, 1845)

How to make a "wonder-turner" toy.

Parlor Games (Peterson's, 1856)

Fireside Amusements & Parlor Games (Peterson's, 1858)

Parlor Games & Amusements (Peterson's Magazine, 1865)

Fireside Amusements (Peterson's, 1872)

Home Billiards (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1877)

Fireside Games (Peterson's, 1879)

Holiday Games (Peterson's, 1879)

What To Do on Holiday Afternoons (Girl's Own Paper, 1880)

Indoor word games -- rhyming, guessing, etc. -- to play on a holiday afternoon.

Games of Cards (Collier's Cyclopedia, 1882)

Whist, euchre and draw poker.

Games of Skill (Collier's Cyclopedia, 1882)

Rules of chess and various types of dominoes.

Parlor Games (Collier's Cyclopedia, 1882)

A guide to all those odd games that you find mentioned in Victorian tales, which assume (naturally) that the reader knows what they are and how they're played. Here are the rules for games such as Consequences, Adjectives, Crambo, What Is My Thought Like?, Mesmerism and more.

Parlor Magic (Collier's Cyclopedia, 1882)

Subtitled "Conjuring, puzzles, riddles, acrostics, etc."

An Account of Some New Winter Games (Little Folks, 1883)

Some indoor games for children.

Fireside Games (Peterson's, 1883)

The Games and Amusements of the Month: October

Football; hockey; rhyming/counting games; frog-pond; will o' the wisp

The Games and Amusements of the Month: November (Little Folks, 1883)

Indoor games, including stamp collecting, guessing games, "lion-hunting," and the Sixteen Puzzle.

Stay-at-Home Girls, by Dora Hope (Girl's Own Paper, 1886)

How the "stay-at-home" girls managed their winter evening entertainments, including a Christmas exhibition and a bazaar.

Verbarium: An Indoor Game for People of All Ages (Girl's Own Paper, 1886)

The early form of Boggle: a competition to form as many words as possible out of one long word.

American Leads at Whist, and Their History, by N.B. Trist (Harper's Monthly, 1891A)

How to Give a Picture-Play, by Alexander Black (Ladies Home Journal, 1898)

"A 'picture-play' is a story told in photographic pictures taken from life."

Reviving the Old-Fashioned Games, by Angela C. Boyce (Ladies Home Journal, 1898)

Party games such as a barn party, spelling bee, apple paring, etc.

A Game of Memory (Girl's Own Paper, 1899)

A New Game, or "How Does Your Garden Grow?" (Girl's Own Paper, 1899)

One quote: "I buried a special dog, and it came up a... Cauliflower."

A Soap-Bubble Party, by Meredith Nugent (Windsor Magazine, 1902A)

How to create a variety of soap-bubble effects, including enclosing small objects within bubbles.

Billiards (Drapers' Self-Culture, 1913)

Checkers or Draughts (Drapers' Self-Culture, 1913)

Chess, by Benjamin Franklin (Drapers' Self-Culture, 1913)

Dominoes (Drapers' Self-Culture, 1913)

Home Amusements for Young and Old (Drapers' Self-Culture, 1913)

A lengthy selection of indoor party games, including word games, math games, table and parlor games, forfeits and many more.

Whist as a Means of Self-Culture, by C.D.P. Hamilton (Drapers' Self-Culture, 1913)

• See Christmas Games & Entertainments for a selection of holiday games.