Tag Archives: history

Learn while you puzzle with Eurographics!

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Eurographics is a great brand that offers you a learn experience while you puzzle. As one of the leading art distributors in North America, Eurographics has a great selection of puzzles and games relating to art history, but also world history, geography, and more! Their puzzles feature many images for those people that love to organize and catalogue almost any and every topic!

saturn, pluto, jupiter, solar system puzzles, space puzzles

Solar System. 750 pieces.

Pluto was recently downgraded to a dwarf planet and joined 3 other known dwarf planets in our solar system: Ceres, Eris, and Makemake. With improved telescopes, scientists expect to discover more.

Circulatory System. 1000 pieces.

If you were just to count the cells, you might be horrified to find that you have more bacterium cells living inside your body than human cells. Most of these bacteria cells are friendly, some are even beneficial.

science puzzles, educational jigsaw puzzles, periodic table

Periodic Table of Elements. 1000 pieces.

Currently there are 118 elements on the periodic table, 90 which occur in nature and the rest being manmade. Most of the elements are metals. Scientists are now working on creating Element 120, which would change the way the periodic table now looks.

History of Trains. 1000 pieces.

One of the first movies ever made by the Lumiére brothers was a simple fifty second film of a train arriving in a station. It mesmerized people that a moving image could capture something that happened in the past and be replayed. There’s a myth that the people ran from the theater because they thought the train would jump out of the screen to run them all over.

fish puzzles, reef puzzles, ocean

Coral Reef by Eurographics. 1000 pieces.

The Great Barrier Reef is about 500,000 years old, with the current structure at about age 8,000 years old… pretty young, considering the first coral reefs started about 500 million years ago and the first close relatives of modern coral reefs popped up approximately 230 million years ago.

Da Vinci. 1000 pieces.

It was pretty rare for his time period, but Da Vinci was actually a vegetarian for humanitarian reasons.

Great Composers. 1000 pieces.

The Baroque Period of Art and Music came after the Protestant Reformation, and it changed the focus of art. The interest in a capella music waned and there was a surge of interest in art which could evoke visceral and emotional responses. In the Baroque era, the first opera house came into existence in Venice in 1637.

The Atom. 1000 pieces.

There are 2 sextillion atoms of oxygen in one drop of water. Imagine how many are in a puzzle piece—or in 1000 puzzle pieces!

Happy Easter!: Facts and Trivia

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Happy Easter from Puzzle Warehouse! We hope whether you got up early to go to church or are spending the afternoon scavenging for eggs hidden by the Easter Bunny (or both!) that you are having a lovely day with family or friends.

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ after the Crucifixion and is celebrated  on the Sunday following the first full moon after the first day of spring. That’s why the date can be as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.

Now That’s Art! by SunsOut. 100 pieces. Finished size: 10″ x 16″.

Eggs have special significance during the Easter holidays because eggs celebrate new life. While they don’t seem alive, life lives within them, just waiting to hatch. Before egg dyeing and chocolate eggs and hardboiled eggs were popular, people gave each other eggs carved from other materials, like wood or precious stones.

Easter on the Lawn by SunsOut. 1000 pieces. Finished size: 26.5″ x 35″.

Rabbits and hares was associated with springtime even before the time of Jesus. The Anglo Saxon goddess of Spring named Eostre (which some believe was the inspiration for the name Easter) had a hare as her companion to symbolize fertility and rebirth.

The tradition of believing that a bunny hides eggs for little children to find came to America in the 1700′s from German immigrants. Like the Christmas stocking and coal, the parents told their children that if they were good and made a little “nest” out of their caps and bonnets, the Easter Bunny would leave them colored eggs.

Bunnie Wannabe by SunsOut. 500 pieces. Finished size: 18″ x 24″.

Easter is a pretty important holiday to Americans. It’s the second-biggest candy holiday after Halloween (even beating out Valentines’ Day!) and it’s the fourth-largest card-exchanging holiday. Nearly 120 million cards are sent every year. Wouldn’t this hound in bunny ears make a perfect card as well as puzzle?

True Love by SunsOut. 500 pieces. Finished size: 15.5″ x 18″.

The first Cadbury Easter Eggs were made in 1875! At first chocolate wasn’t all that popular around Easter until molds were made. In the beginning, chocolate Easter eggs were made of dark chocolate with sugared almonds inside. By 1893, there was 19 different lines on the Cadbury Brothers Easter list in the UK. Now we know that it’s not just chocolate eggs that are so popular. People love molds of chocolate bunnies, and there’s certainly some good selection—Gourmet Food has even made a Top 10 List. Did you know that 76% of Americans say they bite off the ears first, with only 5% going for the feet first and 4% biting into the tail?

Cravings by White Mountain. 300 pieces. Finished size: 19.25″ x 26.625″.

Jelly beans became an Easter tradition in 1930 and now 16 million jelly beans are made every year exclusively for the Easter holiday, as well as approximately 90 million Easter bunnies. But those that don’t like the traditional chocolate or the fruity jelly beans are a pretty dominating market as well: 700 million Peeps are made every year for Easter. Did you know that for a long time people hid Easter goodies in children’s shoes? Baskets became popular when people realized the shoes were too small to stuff in all that yumminess!

 

St. Patrick’s Day Puzzles

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There are puzzles for just about everything, isn’t there? Even St. Patrick’s Day! I was surprised how many puzzles we had for this holiday.

I love this job of blogging for you puzzle-people because it gets me thinking. After looking at all the wonderful green and Irish puzzles, I realize I didn’t actually know all that much about St. Patrick’s Day, besides “wear green or you’ll get pinched.”

So who was St. Patrick and why do we celebrate him?

st. patrick's day puzzles, religious puzzles

St. Patrick by Purrfect Puzzles. 1000 pieces.

St. Patrick is credited with bringing Christianity to the Irish people in the fifth century. Born in Roman Britain, he was captured as a slave at age 16 and escaped to Ireland. It’s believed that he died on March 17, 461—the day we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day now.

clover, shamrock

Irish Charm by SunsOut. 1000 pieces. Finished size: 32.5″ x 26.5″ shape.

One famous legend about him is that he taught people about the Holy Trinity using the three leaves of a clover. Patrick would hold up a shamrock and challenge nonbelievers, ”Is it one leaf or three?” Their answer that it  was “both one leaf and three,” evoked his response: “And so it is with God.”

ireland puzzles

TWA Travel Posters – Explore Ireland by New York Puzzle Co. 1000 pieces.

You didn’t need to travel to Ireland for the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade, though. While since the 9th or 10th century, the Irish have been celebrating the feast of St. Patrick, the first parade actually happened in the US on March 17, 1762. Irishmen in the English military marched through New York City and played traditional Irish music to reconnect with their Irish roots and each other.

pubs, beverage puzzles, alcohol

Irish Pubs by White Mountain. 550 pieces. Finished size: 18″ x 24″.

 

Traditionally, St. Patrick’s Day was a religious occasion where families in Ireland would go to church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon; it was a day in which the Lent prohibition against eating meat was waived and people would dance to music, drink, and have a feast. Up until the 1970s, pubs were mandated to be closed on March 17 because of the sacredness of the holiday. In 1995, the government began using interest in the holiday to drive tourism and showcase Irish culture to the rest of the world.

Green Man by Purrfect Puzzles. 1000 pieces.

It’s said that originally the color associated with St. Patrick’s Day was blue. It switched to green sometime in the 17th century. Green has a lot of associations with Ireland—it’s one of the three colors on the Ireland flag, it’s the color of the shamrock, a symbol of spring, and Ireland has been dubbed “The Emerald Isle.”

Irish Chain by SunsOut. 500 pieces. Finished size: 18″ x 24″.

We wear green on St. Patrick’s Day because some people thought that wearing green made you invisible to leprechauns. Leprechauns are fairy people that pinch anyone they can see, so people began pinching people to remind them what was at stake by being sans-green on March 17!

Black History Month Part II: Black Art Puzzles

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Got Lemons? Make Lemonade by Annie Lee from SunsOut. 500 pieces. 15″ x 29″.

We have a small but lovely selection of African American Art at Puzzle Warehouse, and here we show case some of those puzzles by Black artists Annie Lee (see earlier artist profile), Keith Mallett  and some art in the Tingatinga style.

Keith Mallett attended Hunter College in NY and worked as the in-house artist for Frontline Art Publishers. In 1997, 50 years after Jackie Robinson made his breakthrough into Major League Baseball, Mallett was asked to design the official limited edition print to commemorate the occasion. Mallett is a great artist that we can showcase for Black History month as his art has been instrumental in some movements to celebrate African American experiences — for instance, he also created the art for the first book about African American experiences in the Chicken Soup series.

Tingatinga art was established by Edward Tingatinga in 1968. It is now the name of art and handicrafts produced in the Tinga Tinga Cooperative in Tanzania. These paintings are characterized by their bright colors painted in enamel and highly decorative patterns. They also commonly feature images of animals. Made popular by Disney television, the vivid art style is a wonderful way to appreciate African culture.

Without further ado, enjoy some the best loved puzzles from this theme:

Baptism by Annie Lee from SunsOut. 1000 pieces. 20″ x 27″.

family tree puzzle

Tree of Life by Keith Mallett from SunsOut. 1000 pieces. 20″ x 27″.

duke ellington puzzles, jazz, apollo club

Apollo Fantasy by Keith Mallett from SunsOut. 500 pieces. 13″ x 19″.

african american puzzles

Sisters of the Sun by Keith Mallett from SunsOut. 1000 pieces. 19″ x 30″.

tinga tinga art, crane puzzles, birds

Cranes by Tinga Tinga from Heye. 1000 pieces. 19″ x 27″.

Storks by Tinga Tinga from Heye. 1000 pieces. 13″ x 37″.

elephant puzzles, africa puzzles

Elephant Family by Tinga Tinga from Heye. 1000 pieces. 19″ x 27″.

Presidents Day: Facts and Puzzles

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Monday is Presidents Day, a day originally created to celebrate the birth of American’s first President George Washington, who won the presidency by a unanimous electoral vote. As you know, puzzles are a great way to learn, relearn, and revisit some things you used to know but have maybe since forgotten. Our presidential puzzles feature paintings and artistry of the great men who have led our country and our beautiful capitol, Washington D.C.

We know that when you puzzle, your brain produces dopamine, a chemical that is responsible for learning and memory. While your work on puzzles, this increase of dopamine helps to sharpen our memory. Connecting an artistic puzzle with some facts for you to learn about our country can only be fun and beneficial!

Presidents of the USA (Floor) by Melissa and Doug. 100 pieces. Want to challenge your brain even more while you puzzle? Try to memorize the presidents in order! Learn about some presidential mnemonic tricks here.

 

Dowdle – Washington DC by Dowdle Folk Art. 500 pieces. Did you know that there was a dividing controversy about where the national capital should be located? Before DC was selected by Washington himself, Congress met in Philadelphia, New York City, Annapolis, and Princeton.

Gettysburg Address by Buffalo Games. 1000 pieces. Did you know that Lincoln wasn’t actually an abolitionist? To learn more about the more controversial side of Lincoln, go here.

Callin’ the Red by SunsOut. 1000 pieces. The Donkey that represents the Democratic party was appropriated by Jackson when his opponents referred to him as a “jack*ss” for his populist views.

 

Grand Ol’ Gang by SunsOut. 500 pieces. The same artist who first cartooned the donkey for Dems drew an elephant and labeled it “The Republican vote.” The association stuck and Republicans have had an elephant mascot ever since.

George Washington by Ravensburger. 300 pieces. Presidents Day was shifted from Washington’s real birthday, February 22, to the third Monday in February because of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act which moved several holidays to Mondays to increase 3-day weekends for federal employees.

 

Washington DC 4D Cityscape by 4D Cityscape Inc. 1100+ pieces.