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Digital Jigsaw Puzzles: January Edition

Another season, another set of digital jigsaw puzzles! Ahead of National Puzzle Day (January 29th), we’ve put together one more round of images for you to piece together. They include a few snowy scenes as well as some warmer images to brighten your winter months.

Play them right here on our blog or use the links to play full screen. Each puzzle is set at about 100 pieces but they are customizable to any skill set. Click the grid icon in the center to adjust the number of pieces. All of the images are freely available in our Digital LibraryImage GalleryBiodiversity Heritage Library or Smithsonian Institution Archives Collections. Feel free to explore and make your own!

Miss our previous puzzles? See “Digital Jigsaw Puzzles” and “Digital Jigsaw Puzzles: Fall Edition” 

 

Victorian Garden in the South Yard”, Record Unit 95, Box 31, Folder 20, Smithsonian Institution Archives

This photograph of a garden urn with floral arrangement was taken by Charles Sandy Brenner in 1976 while documenting the Victorian Garden in the South Yard. The garden was located behind the Smithsonian Institution Building, or Castle, in the space that is now the Enid A. Haupt Garden. Developed by the Office of Horticulture, the design for the Victorian Garden was based on the horticultural displays at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Fair warning: this black and white photograph is probably our toughest puzzle yet!

Play online: https://jigex.com/DS2m

Black and white photograph of floral arrangement in urn.
“Victorian Garden in the South Yard,” 1976, by Charles Sandy Brenner. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 31, Folder 20, Image no. SIA_000095_B31_F20_007, detail.

 

Front Cover, John A. Salzer’s Catalogue of Plants and Seeds (1895)

The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives holds more than 10,000 seed and nursery catalogs dating from 1830 to the present. This example from John A. Salzer Seed Co., likely distributed in early autumn of 1895, advertised bulbs to keep your garden colorful in winter. With special handling, varieties of crocus, daffodils and hyacinth can bloom in the colder months.

Play online: https://jigex.com/auap

Front cover of late 19th century seed catalog featuring several types of colorful flowers.
Front Cover, John A. Salzer’s Catalogue of Plants and Seeds (1895)

 

Plate LIV, “Renaissance”, Polychromatic Ornament (1877)

Need some inspiration for an upcoming craft or art project? Auguste Racinet’s Polychromatic Ornament (1877) might have just the pattern or design motif you didn’t know you needed. Racinet’s work was considered a masterpiece in chromolithography. It featured 100 plates illustrating various styles of art through history.

Play online: https://jigex.com/Ghhg

19th century lithographic illustration featuring variety of multi-colored Renaissance designs and motifs.
Plate LIV, “Renaissance”, Polychromatic Ornament (1877)

 

Winter scene, Tokaido Gojusantsugi Zokuga [Edo period, 1600-1868]

Some of Japanese artist Hiroshige Ando’s most famous works are 53 Stations of the Tokaido, a series of woodcut prints showing stations on the Tokaido road that linked Kyoto and Edo (now Tokyo). This winter scene is a town of Ejiri, looking towards Shimizu Port in the distance. Tokaido Gojusantsugi Zokuga is one of the many Japanese illustrated books from the Edo and Meiji periods available in our Digital Library.

Play online: https://jigex.com/W84B

Japanese woodblock print of snowy scene. One figure on horseback, three on foot, walk beneath a snow covered tree.
Winter scene, Tokaido Gojusantsugi Zokuga [Edo period, 1600-1868]

 

“Irish Wolfhound”, The Book of Dogs: An Intimate Study of Mankind’s Best Friend [c. 1919]

Raise your hand if you’ve been spending a lot more time with your canine companions these past few months? We love how artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes captures the relationship between a lovable Irish Wolfhound and his human friend in this illustration from The Book of Dogs: An Intimate Study of Mankind’s Best Friend available in Biodiversity Heritage Library. The book was written by both Fuertes and Ernest Harold Baynes. Fuertes was a talented natural history artist, best known for his ornithological illustrations.

Play online: https://jigex.com/PbYT

Book illustration of large dog standing on hind legs with front legs on a young person's shoulders.
“Irish Wolfhound”, The Book of Dogs: An Intimate Study of Mankind’s Best Friend [c. 1919]

 

“Roses”, New Illustration for the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus (1807)

“Roses” is one of many gorgeous plates in the third volume of Robert John Thornton’s New Illustration for the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, a steamy name for a book on plant reproduction by a middle-aged doctor. With its grand illustrations, this final volume of the title is commonly known as “The Temple of Flora”. Published at the height of Romanticism, the unusual botanical plates, slightly moody and ethereal, made the book famous.

Play online: https://jigex.com/jbaA

Book illustration of various pink, white and yellow roses with birds and nest.
“Roses”, New Illustration for the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus (1807)

4 Comments

  1. Jean A.

    Beautiful images and fun activities! Thanks!

  2. Cami Jordan

    Lovely puzzles but the cut of the pieces is horrendous for those of us with limited vision. Would you consider giving options, such as The Jigsaw Puzzles site does, or at least. use the custom cut? Thanks.

    • Hi Cami,

      Sorry you’re having trouble! If you click the links next to “Play online”, you can open the puzzles in a separate screen with more options, including changing the size and number of pieces.

      Best,

      Erin Rushing
      Outreach Librarian

  3. Nash Souza

    This is amazing! Thank you so much ♥

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