First jigsaw puzzle
Who
John Spilsbury
What
1766 first
Where
United Kingdom ()
When
1766

The popularizing of interlocking picture puzzles is credited to the British map engraver John Spilsbury. In 1766, he published a map of Europe that had been mounted on wood and cut along national boundaries using a marquetry saw. The aim was to help children to learn geography. It was known as a “dissection”; the first recorded use of the term “jigsaw puzzle” was in 1906, after the invention of the tool of the same name.