The History of Crossword Puzzles

PSALM 23-FREE PUZZLE

Arthur Wynne, an immigrant from England invented the first "crossword" puzzle published in the New York World on December 21, 1913. He had designed his first crossword based on word puzzles he saw in magazines as a youth in Liverpool, England.  As a child Wynne would play a puzzle game called "Magic Squares" where the group of words had to be arranged so the letters would read the same way down and across. In remembering this game he would play, he came up with the idea which led to crossword puzzles.  He was in charge of creating the weekly puzzle page, an eight-page comic section in the New York World.  His first puzzle was diamond-shaped, had easy clues, did not have any internal fl squares and was featured in the "Fun" section's "mental exercises" of the New York World. He also created riddles, rebuses, anagrams and word squares for the newspaper but the crossword was by far the most popular.  At the time it was called a "word-cross" and had immediate success as it became a weekly feature.  Being as popular with the readers as they were, readers would send in their crosswords that they had composed. In February 1914 Wynne was using his readers crosswords in his weekly posts, but there came a problem when the many typesetting errors caused the crossword to be dropped.
As the name evolved into "cross-word" the hyphen was dropped.
Crosswords were originally called word squares which can be traced back to the Roman ruins of Pompeii.  They were originally created in the 19th century England as "word squares" and were the basis for crossword puzzles for children, with pictures serving as clues for the answers which had educational value, they were not geared for adults until 1913 at which time adults starting doing them as well.
Arthur Wynne died on January 14, 1945 at the age of 73.

The History of Word Search Puzzles

On March 1, 1968 Norman E. Gibat  published the first Word Search Puzzle in a small classified listing newspaper called the Selenby Digest in Norman, Oklahoma.
As the puzzle grew in popularity the national newspapers soon began publishing them as well.
The Word Search Puzzle accompanied the Crossword Puzzle, which had been in publication since 1913, in the newspapers.
Word Search Puzzles have had many different names throughout time; Word Search,
Word Find, Word Sleuth, Word Seek and Mystery Word, but Word Search has been the name to stick and be used the most.
As the Word Search Puzzles were published teachers in the area began using the puzzles in the classrooms to help students learn different words and their meanings.
The first Word Search Puzzle contained 34 words which were cities in Norman's home state, Oklahoma.

The History of Jigsaw Puzzles

The beginning of Jigsaw puzzles goes back to the 1760's as European map makers pasted maps onto wood and cut them into small pieces.
John Spilsbury a London engraver, mapmaker and apprentice to the Royal Geographer, officially designed and invented what would be the first jigsaw puzzle around 1767, when he attached a map to a piece of wood and cut out each country. All manufactured jigsaw puzzles for the next two decades were dissected maps like Spilsbury's original creation.
These jigsaw puzzle maps were used as teaching aids for geography classes and when the students put the puzzle together, they learned and understood how the countries were arranged.
In two years Spilsbury created eight maps targeting Ireland and Scotland, Whales and England, Africa, America, Asia, Europe and the World.
As wood puzzles were cut one piece at a time they were expensive and a 500 piece puzzle's average cost was $5.00 in 1908, the average worker only earned $50.00 a month. The wealthy however embraced this past time and many sales were made on the weekend when they would purchase these puzzles for their parties.
Two significant changes occurred over the next few years as Parker Brothers, the game manufacturer added figure pieces(dogs,cats,birds,etc.) in their "Pastime" brand of puzzles which made puzzles easier to put together. The puzzle design was changed to interlocking pieces so there was less risk of the pieces getting lost or spilling. It was so successful that in 1909 Parker Brothers factory discontinued making their other games and concentrated solely on producing jigsaw puzzles.
With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 jigsaw puzzles popularity soared as puzzles became more affordable and family's could not afford to go outside the home for entertainment. As the popularity soared, the introduction of die-cut cardboard puzzles emerged. The mass production and inexpensive puzzles being made allowed the manufactures to cut the price. This form of entertainment took the place of going to the movies, or out to dinner.
In mid-1932 manufactures began giving away puzzles with the purchase of their product, these puzzles would represent the products being purchased and it proved to be a great advertising tool as well. The popularity peaked in 1933.
With the Depression two men, Frank Ware and John Henriques created "Par Puzzles". While the other manufactures were cutting cost and quality, these two men were creating custom jigsaw puzzles for  affluent customers.  They would create a jigsaw puzzle that had irregular edges as opposed to the "corner and edge pieces" and would give misleading titles and "par times" which were impossible for all but the quickest puzzlers to complete.
After World War II increasing wages made wood puzzles more expensive because they took so much time to cut, so the demand for wood jigsaw puzzles went down and the brands of wood puzzles that had become so popular started to diminish.  However because the quality and die-cutting of the cardboard puzzles made these more affordable, the cardboard puzzles grew more popular.
In 1958 Parker Brothers stopped making the "Pastime" puzzles and in 1974 Frank Ware of "Par and Straus", another major manufacturer retired and the English "Victory" puzzles which were abundance in the 50's and 60's were depleted.
Steve Richardson and Dave Tibbetts founded "Stave Puzzles" and resurrected the wood puzzles with great designs. Original artwork was introduced and designed to work with the cutting patterns. 3D puzzles, personalized puzzles/service and trick puzzles which fit together in different solutions which were incorrect and only one solution that was correct were some of the puzzles manufactured by "Stave".
Stave's success led other manufactures to follow suit knowing that there was once again a market for the wood puzzles.
Today there is a large variety of jigsaw puzzles on the market, and to name just a few, there are traditional puzzles, wood puzzles, 3d puzzles, shaped puzzles, custom jigsaw puzzles.

Puzzles R Us

As this is my first blog, I thought I would tell you about myself and why I chose to start an online business selling the products I sell.
I have always enjoyed doing Jigsaw Puzzles, and Puzzle Books such as Crossword Puzzles, Word Search Puzzles and Sudoku Books so much that I decided to start my online business selling these products.
When I am not working on my website www.puzzlesrus.com I am taking care of the elderly and one thing that I have found to help keep their minds active is doing these kind of puzzles, and the time spent in doing so, you can really get to know someone!
When doing the Jigsaw Puzzles I don't care too much for taking the puzzle apart once completed because there was generally a LOT of time that went into putting them together, so I always make pictures out of them.  Needless to say, I have completed many Jigsaw Puzzle Pictures and even given a few to the elderly people I have cared for.  It is a special treat for them to receive the puzzle pictures because they also contributed in making the puzzle what it is!
In the past I had my husband cut out the wood I needed to the size of the puzzle and then cut out a border for me.  I would place the puzzle on the board and use polymer to cover the entire picture, using the borders to "frame" the picture and keep the polymer from running over the sides(this method can get expensive though), but now there are Puzzle Frames available for sale, which I also carry on my website and this method is more affordable.  The majority of the expense was the polymer but the pictures turned out beautiful.  One Jigsaw Puzzle Picture I made for my husband a long time ago was a Harley Davidson "Fat Boy" Motorcycle, which hung on our wall for years.
Having four children(which are all grown now) Coloring and Activity Books were always present in our home as well, so I decided to incorporate those things in my business as well, along with the Children's Word Search, Religious Word Search and Wood Crafts.
Family togetherness has always ranked high on my list of "the good things in life" and playing games and solving puzzles with my family, friends and those I have cared for has been a highlight in my life.  I hope to be an instrument in others enjoying time with their loved ones and friends.