In the 1760s, a London mapmaker John Spilsbury pasted a map onto a thin piece of wood, and cut it up with a scroll saw. England would be one piece, Germany would be another.

He marketed these to very affluent and influential people as a tool to teach their children geograp...

Puzzles started expanding beyond learning, with puzzles showing nursery rhymes, fairytale subjects, ships, and trains.

In the early twentieth century, gaming company Parker Brothers invented interlocking pieces, each one cut by hand.

During the Great Depression, jigsaw puzzles became highly popular as entertainment and employment.

With so many people without work, they would buy a scroll saw and a jigsaw, make jigsaw puzzles in their kitchen or basement, and sell them to their neighbors, or rent them ...