Mahjong Compendium

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NMJL card

1937, annual hand list

Sources

Sources

The documents this entry rests on, as published. Each can be opened and checked; nothing in this part is anybody’s reading of them.

  1. MahjongCompare. "Mahjong History and Origin." supporting checked 2026-09-18

    https://mahjongcompare.com/history

    chart’s note NMJL founders (Cecil, Meyerson, Jacobs, Potter), the 1937 Essex House meeting, and jokers entering the official rules in 1961.

    Also cited on: Babcock rules, Regional US house rules, American mah jongg · bibliography #14

  2. The Charleston Club. "The History of American Mah Jongg." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://thecharlestonclubaz.com/blogs/the-journal/the-history-of-american-mah-jongg-from-1920s-import-to-a-century-old-american-tradition

    chart’s note Babcock's 1920 translation and the Parker Brothers / Milton Bradley licensing.

    Also cited on: Babcock rules · bibliography #16

  3. Grokipedia. "American Mahjong." supporting checked 2026-09-18

    https://grokipedia.com/page/American_mahjong

    chart’s note Jokers appearing in sets from the 1940s; the NMJL mandate from the 1960-61 season.

    Also cited on: Regional US house rules, American mah jongg · bibliography #17

  4. The Mahjong Line. "History of the Game." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://themahjongline.com/pages/history

    chart’s note Wright-Patterson origins among Air Force officers' spouses at Wright Field, Ohio.

    Also cited on: Wright-Patterson · bibliography #15

  5. Wikipedia. "American Mahjong." supporting checked 2026-09-18

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mahjong

    chart’s note Racks, jokers, the Charleston, and the NMJL / AMJA annual card.

    Also cited on: Babcock rules, Regional US house rules, American mah jongg, AMJA card · bibliography #13

  6. National Mah Jongg League, official website. cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://www.nationalmahjonggleague.org/

    AI summary The League's own site. In 2026 it advertises the current card while celebrating 89 years, which dates its own founding to 1937.

    Only cited here · bibliography #63

  7. Mahjong Wiki. "American Overview." mahjong.wikidot.com. canonical

    http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:american-overview

    chart’s note Cited as the source for individual nodes in the chart's node table. Carries no bibliography or per-claim citations of its own; see the appendix on tracing the wiki.

    Also cited on: American mah jongg · bibliography #49

AI-generated

Analysis

Written by an AI model from the sources above. It is a reading of them, not a source in its own right: every figure in it points back to a numbered source, and where the two disagree, the source is right.

Assessment

Confidence
documented a published ruleset or rule description exists and is cited
Evidence
corroborated two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

Cross-comparison

What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.

  • [1] in 1937 four women, Viola Cecil, Dorothy Meyerson, Herma Jacobs and Hortense Potter, founded the National Mah Jongg League in New York City; nearly 400 women rallied at Manhattan's Essex House hotel to support standardising American rules
  • [2] dates the founding to 1937 in New York City, by a group of predominantly Jewish women from the Upper West Side
  • [3] dates the founding to 1937 in New York City
  • [4] dates the NMJL's start to 1937
  • [5] CONFLICT: states that the National Mah Jongg League, Inc. published a volume of 'Official American Rules' in 1935, which predates the 1937 founding date the other four sources give
  • [6] RESOLVES THE CONFLICT: the League's own site, selling the 2026 card, describes itself as celebrating 89 years. Counting back from 2026 gives 1937, which is the League's own dating of its founding

Reading it

The conflict is settled. Four secondary sources date the founding to 1937 in New York City, two of them naming the Essex House meeting, and the League's own website now confirms it from the inside: in 2026 it celebrates 89 years, which counts back to 1937. Wikipedia's statement that the League published Official American Rules in 1935 cannot be reconciled with that and should be treated as the outlier; whatever the 1935 publication was, the organisation dates itself from 1937.

In the tree

Descends from Regional US house rules, as the source chart draws it.

Descends into

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