Anne Williams is America’s consummate historian on the history of jigsaw puzzles, with an expertise that covers much of the world. She reports:
I have probably cut 250-300 puzzles since I first started cutting in
1977. In fact, it was starting to cut that got me interested in how
other people had cut puzzles, and that got me off on the collecting and
history road.
Will Shortz, Anne Williams, Helen Andrews
Anne’s books and catalogs (and a video) include:
THE JIGSAW PUZZLE: PIECING TOGETHER A HISTORY
by Anne D. Williams (Berkley/Penguin 2004, ISBN 0-425-19820-0)
Hardcover, more than 100 illustrations, both color and black and white.
It covers the history of jigsaw puzzles from the 1750s to the present.
Contents include: Foreword by Will Shortz
Preface 1. Bringing Order out of Chaos
2. From Schoolroom to Playroom 3. Grown-Ups Turn to Cut-Ups
4. The Great Depression Mania 5. The Forties and Beyond
6. Luxury Puzzles 7. Pieces of Marketing
8. Collecting and Collections 9. The Sum of All the Pieces
App. A. Making Jigsaw Puzzles for Fun or for Sale
App. B. Selected Websites for Puzzlers
There are also extensive notes, bibliography and index.
CUTTING A FINE FIGURE: THE ART OF THE JIGSAW PUZZLE
by Anne D. Williams. (Catalog for 1996 exhibition)
Lexington, MA: Museum of Our National Heritage, 1996.
Paperbound, 60 pages, color cover, 23 b&w photos. Includes:
–Exhibition checklist;
– 4-page list of makers of hand-cut wood jigsaw puzzles (1996);
– 10-page essay “Jigsaw Puzzles: A Boston Area Tradition”
– 14-page essay “Parker Brothers and Pastime Puzzles”.
A PUZZLE TRIO (VIDEO) by Anne D. Williams and Robert Cole.
Video shown at the 1996 puzzle exhibition at the Museum of
Our National Heritage, Lexington, MA. Segments include:
–Puzzle-Making at Parker Brothers. Features Pastime Puzzles and
interviews with former employees. One cutter demonstrates how she
created her own patterns for figure pieces.
–Jig-Saw Craze Sweeps Country. newsreel footage of Depression-era
puzzle mania.
–How Puzzles Are Made. Features contemporary puzzle makers,
including Stave Puzzles (hand-crafted wood puzzles) and
Hallmark (die-cut cardboard puzzles). 9 minutes total;
THE ART OF THE PUZZLE: ASTOUNDING AND CONFOUNDING, by Jerry Slocum and
Anne D. Williams. Catalog for puzzle exhibition at Katonah Museum of Art,
fall 2000. Contains two long essays on jigsaw puzzles and mechanical
puzzles, complete checklist for exhibition, and preface by Will Shortz.
63 color photos, 38 pages, paperbound.
JIGSAW PUZZLES: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY AND PRICE GUIDE, by Anne D.
Williams. Radnor, PA: Chilton/Wallace-Homestead, 1990. paperbound, 362+
pages, 64 color photos, 750 b&w photos. Contains history of jigsaw puzzles,
details on history of 30 major manufacturers, collecting tips, valuation
guide, price guide, 3 indexes.
New Jigsaw Puzzle Book from Puzzle Maven Anne Williams
(submitted by Clark King)
The Jigsaw Puzzle: Piecing Together A History
by Anne D. Williams
Foreword by Will Shortz
Penguin/Berkley, 2004. ISBN 0-425-19820-0 hardcover, 250 pages, with about 100 color and b/w photos. $22.95 The six historical chapters cover: children’s puzzles, the 1908-10 puzzle craze for adults; the Great Depression puzzle mania; post-1940 puzzles; luxury puzzles (Par, Stave, etc.), and advertising puzzles. Other chapters cover puzzle competitions, collecting, manufacturing, the industry, and puzzles as a cultural phenomenon. Extensive bibliography and index. Available now from bookstores and online booksellers. Review from Publishers Weekly:
Jigsaw puzzle collector and historian Williams covers every aspect of the game’s development in this comprehensive history. “The jigsaw puzzle is still going strong as it approaches the 250th anniversary of its birth,” the author writes. She then goes on to explain how jigsaws were advocated by the philosopher John Locke as an educational toy, used by Ellis Island physicians to ascertain immigrants’ mental capacity and embraced by Americans who took them out of lending libraries to keep their minds off the 1930′s economic depression. A particularly interesting time is the 1870s. Then, Williams writes, “two movements came together… women’s handicrafts and fret-work.” Women began making puzzles with small treadle-powered saws and selling them for profit and for charity; in this way, puzzles became an early catalyst for women’s emancipation from the home. Other segments of the book detail puzzle creators and collectors and instruct readers on how to make their own puzzles. Williams’s writing, while never pedestrian, is not especially distinctive, and the scope of the book doesn’t allow some of the more interesting characters to receive the fuller treatment their lives merit. For puzzle fans and friends, of which Williams convincingly insists there are still millions, this book will be a delightful past-time when an actual puzzle isn’t available.
