Cooperating with our stay-at-home ordinance for the past two months has us going to pieces. Five hundred pieces, to be exact.
This 1893 World’s Fair jigsaw puzzle is not going to assemble itself! Or is it?
Assembling this birds-eye-view of the 1893 World’s Fair lifted our spirits and offered a fascinating exploration of details on the fairgrounds of the Columbian Exposition. The 24”-by-18″, 500-piece puzzle was published by Pomegranate Communications in 2012 (ISBN 9780764963193). The handsome storage box offers a concise overview of the Fair and notes that the birds-eye-view image was printed originally by Rand McNally & Co. in 1893. Although the Pomegranate jigsaw puzzle is long out-of-print, a poster print of the image is available from Poster Plus.
A 500-piece jigsaw puzzle of the World’s Columbian Exposition, published by Pomegranate Communications in 2012.
Copies of this jigsaw puzzle are quite difficult to find and often sell for well above the original $16.95 retail price. As a digital alternative, the Chicago History Museum has posted an online jigsaw puzzle, showing (when solved) an image of a poster advertising “Chicago Day” from the Museum’s collection:
https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=33247313f95e
SPOILER ALERT! The solved digital jigsaw puzzle from the Chicago History Museum is a lovely Chicago Day poster.
For those who only need a minute or two to solve that simple puzzle, we offer a trivia twist on the birds-eye-view jigsaw puzzle. Shown below are ten pieces from the puzzle, each depicting a portion of an iconic building, structure, artwork, or sight from the Columbian Exposition. Can you identify all ten? Use the “Leave a Reply” text box below to share your answers.
