Historic sketches of blindfold chess exhibitions

Sporting Magazine, Volume 3, 1794, p.00

François-André Danican Philidor
Feb 23, 1794 at Mr Parsloe's, St James street, London
2 boards [-2]
opponents: Count Bruhr, Mr Wilson
1hr 35 mins

info source: Sporting Magazine, Volume 3, 1794, p.282

Le Monde Illustre, Oct 16, 1858, p. 249

Paul Morphy
Sep 27, 1858 at the Cafe de la Regence, Paris
8 boards [+6=2]
opponents: Baucher, Bierwirth, Bornemann, Guibert, Lequesne, Potier, Preti, Seguin
10hrs

info source: Paul Morphy by F. M. Edge, 1859, pp.141-147

Illustrirte Zeitung, Oct 18, 1862, p. 289

Louis Paulsen
Sep 8, 1862 at Geisler'sche Rittersaal, Dusseldorf during the 1862 chess congress
10 boards [+6=4]
some opponents: Schlieper, G. Schultz, Hengſtenberg, Kohtz, Wolff, Pflaum
12hrs

info source: Illustrirte Zeitung, Oct 18, 1862, p. 290

The Illustrated sporting & dramatic news, vol 5, Jul 15, 1876, p.373

Joseph Henry Blackburne
Jun 28, 1876 at the City of London Chess Club
10 boards [+3=3-1, 3 unfinished]
some opponents: Izard [defeat], Detmold, Klein and M'Leod [draws]
unknown time

info source: The Illustrated sporting & dramatic news, vol 5, Jul 8, 1876, p.366, Westminster Papers, Jul 1876, p.49

Das interessante Blatt, Nov 5, 1885, p.6

Johannes Zukertort
Oct 3, 1885, at Athenaeum, Camden Road, London
8 boards [+4, 4 unfinished]
no found opponents' names
time over 6hrs [18:15-early morning]

info source: British Chess Magazine, 1885, p.396

Нива 17/23.04.1888, p.444

Mikhail Chigorin

info obscure:
I've tried to OCR the Russian text and google translate it but with no much of success. I've caught only that it was possibly about a blindfold exhibition with 10 boards at St. Petersburg Chess Club, this year [??-so for the period Jan to Apr 1888]. However Chigorin's ability to play 10 boards blindfold is generally mentioned also in ICM Dec 1888, p.356.

Dagblad van Noord-Brabant of 16-06-1902

Harry Nelson Pillsbury
previous Monday [??] of 16.06.1902 according to the Dutch text [??], but maybe on May 31 according to Chronicle of 9 Aug 1902 and some other papers. At Athenaeum, Camden Road, London.
10 boards [one lost]
no found opponents' names
unknown time

Veery nice! Thanks for sharing

Wow, where'd you get that??? SOOO COOL

A q,

on the table next to Chigorin, was it “voda” or “vodka?”😁

Thanks for gathering up all those images.

Note: the only one wearing a blindfold is Philidor.

Here's a photo o George Koltanowski giving a blind demonstration on Jan. 6, 1945 against only 7 opponents (Alfred Barr, Jr., Max Ernst, Frederick Kiesler, Julien Levy, Dorothea Tanning, Xanti Schawinsky and Vittorio Rieti).
Kolty is facing away the wall.  Alfred Barr, Jr.  in on the extreme left across from Marcel Duchamp who is making Kolty's moves.  They're using a Max Ernst set and Strategic Board.  On the right is Xanti Schawinsky using a Bauhaus set. 

Kolty, actually wearing a blindfold, in Chicago in 1946

Alekhine and Kolty played simultaneous tandem blindfold games against consulting opponents (form "chess Review" April, 1934):

Paul Morphy and Louis Paulsen played each other blind on on October 10, 1857.  Actually, Morphy was selected to be one of Paulsen's 4 opponents in a blindfold demonstration. Paulsen was a noted blindfold player. Morphy asked is he could also be blindfolded.  This was Morphy's first public blindfold game and the only one recorded in which he played the black pieces.  When Morphy announced mate in 5, Paulsen, in a minute or two said, "I can see it."

Below is an artistic rendering: (Morphy on the left; Paulsen on the right).

@batgirl thanks for those fascinating displays and stories 😊

Well, it was @introuble2 who provided the format and the original intriguing images. I was only  giving it a boost.

I thought I had posted this one--- as a tie-in to the Kolty - Alekhine story:
This is Alekhine giving a simul, date unknown.

beautiful pics batgirl and thank you!! Loved #8, more for the story behind it.

Here is a story of how  Steinitz completely failed in a blindfold demonstration:

Here's another blindfold simul by Alekhine, against Nazis

From White Snow of Russia, a 1980 Soviet drama film directed by Yuri Vyshinsky

No discussion on the blindfold can go without Newell Williams Banks who once played simultaneously chess, checkers and billiards.

"Banks played his first game of blindfold checkers at age five years and six months at the Detroit Chess and Checker Club."

"Mr Banks has traveled over 1,000,000 miles in the past 45 years and played about 600,000 checkers and chess games. During this time he has played over 80,000 blindfold games." Edward Winter

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/banks.html

Here is Banks working for the Crown in a Living Chess game between the Monarchy and Democracy:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-is-alive-in-detroit 

Probably not a household name here, the Dutch Master, Rudolf Loman, a church organist and blindfold specialist, was well known in his day (around the turn of the 20th century) particularly in his own country and in England where he spend a lot of time.  The demonstration below occurred in 1900.