1852, William Spooner, London, England.
Early leisure activities of this kind began as jigsaw puzzles that were made from maps. The print was glued down to a thin board, and a jigsaw (a type of very narrow saw makes cutting around delicate shapes fairly easy) was used to cut out each country. These ‘dissected map’ games were entertaining enough that studying geography in this way became quite popular in the late 18th century.
The Travellers of Europe is a successor of the dissected map tradition, meant to inspire players to study the world by showing handsome images of cities like Cairo and Madrid and natural wonders like the Giant’s Causeway. Each of the landmarks that are shown would have a corresponding informational entry in the accompanying booklet.
Gift of Ellen Liman ‘57
