The earliest known forms of bowling date to Ancient Egypt[5] and the Ancient Roman Empire. Remnants of balls used at the time were found among artifacts in ancient Egypt going back to 3200 B.C.E.[6] Balls were made using the husks of grains, covered in material such as leather, and bound with string. Other ball, made of porcelain or even plastic have also been found, indicating that these were rolled along the ground rather than thrown due to their size and weight.[6] Some of these resemble the modern day jack used in target bowl games. Bowling games of different forms are also noted by Herodotus as an invention of the Lydians in Asia Minor.[7] About 2,000 years ago a similar game evolved between Roman legionaries entailing the tossing of stone objects as close as possible to other stone objects, which eventually evolved into Italian Bocce, or outdoor bowling.[8]
About 400 C.E. bowling began in Germany as a refligious ritual to cleanse oneself from sin by rolling a rock into a club (kegel) representing the heathen, causing bowlers to be called keglers.[9]
In 1299 the oldest known bowling green for target style bowling to survive to modern times was built, Master's Close (now the Old Bowling Green of the Southhampton Bowling Club) in Southampton, England; it is still in use.[10]
In 1325 laws were passed in Berlin and Cologne limiting bets on lawn bowling to five shillings.[9]
In 1366 the first official mention of bowling in England was made when King Edward III banned it as a distraction to archery practice.[11]
In the 15th-17th centuries lawn bowling spread from Germany into Austria, Switzerland, and the Low Countries, with playing surfaces made of cinders or baked clay.[9]
In 1455 lawn bowling lanes in London were first roofed-over, turning bowling into an all-weather game.[9] In Germany they were called kegelbahns, often attached to taverns and guest houses.
In 1463 a public feast was held in Frankfurt, Germany, with a venison dinner followed by lawn bowling.[9]
In 1511 English King Henry VIII (an avid bowler) banned bowling for the lower classes, imposing a levy for private lanes to limit them to the wealthy.[12] Another English law passed in 1541 (repealed in 1845) prohibited workers from bowling except on Christmas, and only in their master's home and in his presence. In 1530 he acquired Whitehall Palace in central London as his new residence, having it extensively rebuilt complete with outdoor bowling lanes, indoor tennis court, jousting tiltyard, and cockfighting pit.
About 1520 Protestant Reformation founder Martin Luther set the number of pins (which varied from 3 to 17) at nine, and built a bowling lane next to his home for his children, sometimes rolling a ball himself.[9][13]
On July 19, 1588 English Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Drake allegedly was playing bowls at Plymouth Hoe when the arrival of the Spanish Armada was announced, replying "We have time enough to finish the game and beat the Spaniards too."[14]
The Bowling Game, by Dutch painter Jan Steen, c. 1655. Many Dutch Golden Age paintings depicted bowling.
In 1609 Dutch East India Company explorer Henry Hudson discovered Hudson Bay, bringing Dutch colonization to New Amsterdam (later New York); Hudson's men brought some form of lawn bowling with them.[9]
In 1617 English King James I published Declaration of Sports, banning bowling on Sundays but permitting dancing and archery for those first attending an Anglican service, outraging Puritans; it was reissued in 1633 by his successor Charles I, then ordered publicly burned in 1643 by the Puritan Parliament.
In 1670 Dutchmen liked to bowl at the Old King’s Arms Tavern near modern-day 2nd and Broadway in New York City.[15]
In 1733 Bowling Green in New York City was built on the site of a Dutch cattle market and parade ground, becoming the city's oldest public park to survive to modern times.
In 1819 New York writer Washington Irving made the first mention of ninepin bowling in American literature in his story Rip Van Winkle.
On January 1, 1840 Knickerbocker Alleys in New York City opened, becoming the first indoor bowling alley.[16]
In 1841 the state of Connecticut banned nine-pin bowling to stop gambling, causing ten-pin bowling to be created to get around the law.[17]
In 1846 the oldest surviving bowling lanes in the United States were built as part of Roseland Cottage, the summer estate of Henry Chandler Bowen (1831-1896) in Woodstock, Connecticut. The lanes, now part of Historic New England's Roseland Cottage House Museum contain Gothic Revival architectural elements in keeping with the style of the entire estate.[18]
In 1848 the Revolutions of 1848 resulted in accelerated German immigration to the U.S., reaching 5 million by 1900, bringing their love of beer and bowling with them; by the late 19th century they made New York City a center of bowling.
In 1848 the Scottish Bowling Association for lawn bowling was founded in Scotland by 200 clubs; it was dissolved then refounded in 1892.
In 1864 Glasgow cotton merchant William Wallace Mitchell (1803–84) published Manual of Bowls Playing, which became a standard reference for lawn bowling in Scotland.[19]
In 1875 the National Bowling Association (NBA) was founded by 27 local clubs in New York City to standardize rules for ten-pin bowling, setting the ball size and the distance between the foul line and the pins, but failing to agree on other rules; it was superseded in 1895 by the American Bowling Congress.[20]
In 1880 Justin White of Worcester, Massachusetts invented Candlepin Bowling.
In the 1880s Brunswick Corporation (founded 1845) of Chicago, Illinois, maker of billiard tables began making bowling balls, pins, and wooden lanes to sell to taverns installing bowling alleys; it left the bowling business in 2014.
On September 9, 1895 the modern standardized rules for ten-pin bowling were established in New York City by the new American Bowling Congress (ABC) (later the United States Bowling Congress), who changed the scoring system from a maximum 200 points for 20 balls to a maximum 300 points for 10 balls, and set the maximum ball weight at 16 lbs. and pin distance at 12 inches. The first ABC champion (1906-1921) was Jimmy Smith (1885-1948).[21] In 1927 Mrs. Floretta "Doty" McCutcheon (1888-1967) defeated Smith in an exhibition match, founding a school that taught 500,000 women how to bowl.[22][23][24] In 1993 women were allowed to join the ABC. In 2005 the ABC merged with the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) et al. to become the United States Bowling Congress (USBC).
The ABC initially used bowling bowls made of Lignum vitae hardwood from the Caribbean, which were eventually supplanted by the Ebonite rubber bowling ball (1905) and the Brunswick Mineralite rubber ball (1914). In 1980 urethane bowling balls were introduced by Ebonite.[25]
In the early 1890s Duckpin bowling was invented in Boston, Massachusetts, spreading to Baltimore, Maryland about 1899.
In 1903 the English Bowling Association was founded by cricketer W. G. Grace. On January 1, 2008 it merged with the English Women's Bowling Association to become Bowls England.
In 1903 D. Peifer of Chicago, Illinois invented a handicap method for bowling.[26]
In 1905 Rubber Duckpin bowling was invented by Willam Wuerthele of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, catching on in Quebec, Canada.
Rules for target bowls evolved separately in each of the other countries that adopted the predominantly British game. In 1905 the International Bowling Board was formed;[27] its constitution adopted the laws of the Scottish Bowling Association, with variations allowed at the individual country level.[28]
In September 1907 the Victorian Ladies' Bowling Association was founded in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, becoming the world's first women's lawn bowling association.
In 1909 the first ten-pin bowling alley in Europe was installed in Sweden, but the game failed to catch on in the rest of Europe until after World War II. Meanwhile, ten-pin bowling caught on in Great Britain after hundreds of bowling lanes were installed on U.S. military bases during World War II.[9]
In 1913 the monthly Bowlers Journal was founded in Chicago, Illinois, continuing to publish to the present day.
In late 1916 the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) (originally the Woman's National Bowling Association) was founded in Saint Louis, Missouri, merging with the United States Bowling Congress in 2005.
In 1920-1933 Prohibition in the U.S. caused bowling alleys to disassociate from saloons, turning bowling into a family game and encouraging women bowlers.[29]
On October 2, 1921 the annual Petersen Open Bowling Tournament (a.k.a. The Pete) was first held in Chicago, Ill., becoming bowling's richest tournament of the day. In 1998 it was taken over by AMF.[30]
In 1926 the International Bowling Association (IBA) was formed by the U.S., Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, and Finland, holding four world championships by 1936.[9]
On March 21, 1934 the National Bowling Writers Association was founded in Peoria, Illinois by four bowling journalists; in 1953 it changed its name to the Bowling Writers Association of America.[31]
On August 20, 1939 the National Negro Bowling Association was founded in Detroit, Michigan, dropping Negro from the title in 1944 and opening membership to all races, reaching 30,000 members in 2007.[32]
In 1947 the Australian Women's Bowling Council was founded, holding the first Australian women's national lawn bowling championship in Sydney in 1949, which was won by Mrs. R. Cranley of Queensland.
On April 18, 1948 the Professional Women Bowling Writers (PWBW) was founded in Dallas, Texas, admitting men in 1975. On January 1, 2007 it merged with the Bowling Writers Association of America.[33]
About 1950 the Golden Age of Ten-Pin Bowling began, in which professional bowlers made salaries rivaling those of baseball, football, and hockey players; it ended in the late 1979s