Jigsaw puzzle:Tale of the Treasure Isle

The manufacture of jigsaw puzzles for adults really began in the early years of the 20th century in America. Before this, children's pictures were cut up in simple ways, and children learned colors, shapes, and spatial relationships by assembling them. Later, craftspeople hand cut more difficult-to-assemble puzzles for adults using either a hand saw or a foot-operated scroll or jigsaw. During the early years of the century only wealthy people could afford the puzzles; they were so expensive to produce. In the 1930s, however, methods of mass production brought down the cost and soon everyone got caught up in a jigsaw puzzle craze.

When the years of the Great Depression slowed busines down for the Upson Company, a drywall manufacturer in Lockport, New York, the firm decided to re-tool and began making jigsaw puzzles from a thin drywall product. Thicker than other cardboard puzzles, the brand appealed to many puzzlers. They liked the feel of the thicker material.