Interactive Geographical Representation of... Oh, It's a Jigsaw Map of the U.S.A., ca 1881

M Y   C OL L E C T I O N — Back together again after who knows how many decades, this circa 1883 jigsaw puzzle map of the United States and Territories is just slightly the worse for wear. Vermont is missing now, and as you can see if you enlarge the thumbnail, Georgia has been replaced with a homemade version to replace a piece gone missing generations ago. The sliding-top box for all of the pieces is to the right of the completed piece. This piece has my great-uncle Art's name printed inside, as he was born in the early 1880s, it would fit that he would have played with this map. Inside the box, on the bottom is scrawled, Gloria—Hoohoo's given name, bron in 1925—so it's obvious it was passed down through the family.

Box cover, which slides to the right to open on hidden tracks. 

Hard to read text: 

Kindergarten 

Geography

New and Improved

Dissected

Map of the United States

Published by

G. N. Tackabury & Co.

Canastota, Madison, Co. N.Y.

The underside of the cover piece. Testimonials to the product, dated 1880

Some of the individual pieces.

Close up view of all of the existing pieces together. The fit is surprisingly close, probably as tight as when it was new despite the intervening 130 years of indifferent storage. Vermont is missing, and Georgia has been replaced at some early point in its life with a handmade, and handlettered, piece.

A map I found online of the state of the States in 1880 when this puzzle was produced. The dark pink states are the actual states in existence then. The light blue areas were still territories, and the green state, Oklahoma, is listed as an "Unorganized Territory."