Monday, September 6, 2010

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."

6 comments:

  1. Your always full of suprises - I love vintage maps. Upon close inspection, alot of the state boundaries have changed quite a bit since this map was created. And the fact that it is a puzzle makes it even more interesting. Very cool.

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  2. Casey,

    One of my favorite toys from early childhood was a map of the US where each state was a puzzle piece. It was made of heavy cardboard and I loved dumping it all out and putting it back together. Good memories!

    Paul, NYC

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  3. I had a pretty hard time putting it together, lol. I"m leaving it together for a few days, to let it see the light of day for a while.

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  4. And I thought it was Texas that wanted to secede from the Union. lol

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  5. PAUL, NOW I KNOW WHERE MY GRANDKIDS CARDBOARD US MAP DISAPPEARED TOO. I ALSO LOVE THAT PUZZEL.
    CASEY, YOU ALWAYS AMAZE ME WITH ALL THE THINGS YOU TREAT US TOO EVERYDAY. THANKS. IT'S JUST GOOD FUN FOR ME.

    GRANNY

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  6. Vermont was actually a Republic once. That map is partially right.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_Republic

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