History of Puzzles

History of Jigsaw Puzzles — Overview

Jigsaw puzzles have journeyed from classroom tools to global pastimes, mirroring changes in technology, industry, and leisure. This mini‑site traces that story—from wooden “dissected maps” to cardboard mass‑market hits, all the way to digital puzzles you can play anywhere.

The appeal has stayed surprisingly constant: a calm challenge, a promise of order emerging from chaos, and a satisfying finale when the image locks into place. Yet every era added something new—better cutting tools in the nineteenth century, affordable cardboard in the twentieth, and bite‑size mobile sessions in the twenty‑first. Along the way, puzzles have been teachers, time‑fillers, social ice‑breakers, collectibles, and even art objects.

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What this site covers

  • Origins: how mapmakers turned wooden boards into geography lessons.
  • Industrial Era: why fretsaws and small workshops mattered.
  • 20th Century: cardboard, department stores, and a boom during hard times.
  • Digital Age: from CD‑ROM novelties to web and mobile puzzle platforms.