Swami "Talking Board" (Ouija)

During the middle 19th century, an undercurrent of spiritualism and belief in contacting dead spirits fostered the creation of many different devices by which humans could more easily attempt communication with these entities.

One of the most popular and enduring was the talking board, a board with letters, numbers, and greetings, on which a medium or the game's players could attempt to create words by means of a pointer device.

The most long-lived and successful of these talking boards became known as the Ouija, pronounced "wee gee." A Chicago firm produced its version of a board, the "Swami Mystery Talking Board," in 1944. The board was sold with a planchette, which was used to point out letters.