pursued lithography and in 1860, he set up the first color lithography shop in Springfield, Massachusetts

moved forward with an idea he had for a board game which he called The Checkered Game of Life, an early version of what later became The Game of Life.

2004, he was posthumously inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame along with George Ditomassi of Milton Bradley Company. Through the 20th century the company he founded in 1860, Milton Bradley Company dominated the production of American games, with titles like Candyland, Operation, and Battleship. The company is now a subsidiary of Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based Hasbro.

In search of a lucrative alternative project in which to employ his drafting skills, Bradley found inspiration from an imported board game given to him by a friend. Concluding that he could produce and market a similar game to American consumers, Milton Bradley released The Checkered Game of Life in the winter of 1860.

Bradley personally sold his first run of several hundred copies in one two-day period in New York; by 1861, consumers had bought over 45,000 copies.

While the structure of play used in The Checkered Game of Life differed little from previous board games, Bradley's game embraced a radically different concept of success. Earlier children's games, such as the popular Mansion of Happiness developed in Puritan Massachusetts, were concerned entirely with providing an attractive venue from which to promote moral virtue. But Bradley preferred to define success in secular business terms consistent with America's emerging focus on "the causal relationship between character and wealth." This approach, which depicted life as a quest for accomplishment in which personal virtues provided a means to an end, rather than a point of focus, complemented America's burgeoning fascination with obtaining wealth in the years following the Civil War.

Bradley established a set of rules to play croquet in 1866. Bradley was one of the marketers of the zoetrope, a spinning slotted drum with pre-printed images to create the illusion of motion pictures. Though this was not definitely known as of November 2010, Bradley might have been awarded the patent for the one-arm paper cutter.

On this solid basis, Milton continued to produce games and puzzles, such as word games, trivia knowledge games, biblical games, traditional games, rebus-based games, and an early type of Monopoly called “The Way to Make Money.” Additionally, Milton researched and codified the rules for croquet that was included with his croquet sets. Those rules became the standard in America.

Milton continued to produce games, especially parlor games and jigsaw puzzles.

When Milton died in 1911, the company was temporarily led by Ralph Ellis before it was co-chaired by Milton's son-in-law Robert Ingersoll and George's son, William Tapley. By 1920, Milton Bradley Company had five manufacturing sites in Springfield.

 At the close of appellants' case, the fraud count was withdrawn, the court directed a verdict for Milton Bradley on the contract claim, and denied without prejudice Milton Bradley's motion for a directed verdict on the misappropriation counts.  After the lengthy trial was concluded, the jury returned a general verdict for Coleman and Burten in the amount of $737,058.10 for royalties based on the Dark Tower profits.  Milton Bradley moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and the district court, after a meticulous survey of the cases, which it recognized posed a "surprisingly close question", set aside the verdict.  We share the court's view of the closeness of the question, but feel constrained to allow the verdict to stand.

By 1861, Bradley had sold more than 45,000 copies of his game. He formed Milton Bradley and Company in 1864 to print other games and game manuals

In 1911, Milton Bradley died, but the business he started continued to grow and prosper.

In 1880, Bradley expanded his business and began making jigsaw puzzles.

printing a series of kindergarten manuals, newsletters, and children's books, Bradley wrote and published four books on teaching color to kids, including Colour in the Kindergarten (1893).

In 1860, he set up Massachusetts' first color lithography shop in Springfield. One of his lithographs, a likeness of Abraham Lincoln, sold especially well, until Lincoln grew a beard and rendered Bradley's beardless image out-of-date.