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The Politics of Puzzles

& the Cipher of Representation

Who in the world are we? And what can puzzles tell us about our past?

 

Tactile and playful, puzzles are often relegated to school rooms or left firmly in the care of avid puzzlers. But as realia, puzzles serve as physical evidence of bygone eras and the lingering cultural ideas that once prevailed.

 

The Politics of Puzzles (& the Cipher of Representation) examines four puzzles from The New York Public Library that reflect our nation’s collective history. Each puzzle serves as tiny, mobile (and often noisy) indicators of social and economic strife in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

The collected puzzles take the form of three-dimensional dexterity puzzles (also known as palm puzzles) and two-dimensional vanishment and checkerboard puzzles. The vanishment and checkerboard puzzles seek focused solutions, requiring logical answers to posed questions. Dexterity puzzles, on the other hand, test physical rather than mental agility, requiring small deft movements to complete a proposed challenge.

 

Through the challenges they pose or the questions they ask, these puzzles also convey relevant information about the prevailing cultural thought of the time, whether it be national isolationism or racial segregation. The Blackanwite Puzzle remarks on issues of racial segregation, urging players to separate colored balls. The Get Off the Earth Puzzle features racist depictions of Chinese men and poses the question of the vanishing “Chinamen.” The League of Nations Puzzle challenges players to keep out of the League through the placement of symbolic rolling balls. And the Amus ‘n’ Ande Puzzle encourages players to create checkerboards, a play on the title of the 1930 comedy Check and Double Check, featuring white actors in blackface.

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These puzzles speak of our fears, our struggles, our racist ideas, and shed light on our communal and individual identities. By recognizing and acknowledging this collective history, we can see how far we’ve come and see how much further we must go.

Bibliography

  1. Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. (1852). Bow[Wow]Ery Pies. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-d767-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

  2. Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. (1871). The Chinese Question. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-37cc-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

  3. Barbeau, E. (1992). Fallacies, flaws, and flimflam. The College Mathematics Journal, 23(5), 402-405. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.metlibrary.idm.oclc.org/stable/2686414

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  5. The Cradle of the League of Nations political cartoon [Image]. (2017). Retrieved from https://americanhistory-abc-clio-com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/Search/Display/1791438

  6. Dudeney, H. E. (1908). The world’s best puzzles. The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, 36, p. 785. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=B5tAAQAAMAAJ&dq=get%20off%20the%20earth%20puzzle%20chinaman&pg=PA785#v=onepage&q=get%20off%20the%20earth%20puzzle%20chinaman&f=false

  7. The Famous Amus ‘N’ Ande Checker Board Puzzle. (n.d.). The Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. Retrieved from http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/slocum/LL-SLO-018049

  8. Get Off the Earth Puzzle Mystery S. Loyd. (n.d.). The Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. Retrieved from http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/slocum/LL-SLO-003720

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  11. Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. (2006). A world of puzzles: Highlights from the Jerry Slocum Collection of mechanical puzzles, brainteasers & ingenious objects. Retrieved from http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/metsnav3/general/index.html#mets=http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.dlib.indiana.edu%2Fiudl%2Fgeneral%2Fmets%2FVAB9961&page=1

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  13. Music Division, The New York Public Library. (1899 - 1899). Stay in your own backyard. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-efd9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

  14. Pash, S. L. (2005). Isolationism. Americans at War, 3(1901-1945), p.78-80. Macmillan Reference USA. U.S. History in Context. Retrieved from http://i.ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3427300254/UHIC?u=nypl&xid=3cc91b85

  15. Raven-Hill, L. (1919). The gap in the bridge [Cartoon]. Punch Almanack 1919. p. 483. Retrieved from http://archive.org/stream/punchvol156a157lemouoft#page/n1047/mode/2up

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  17. Sam Loyd Timeline. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://samloyd.com/about-sam-loyd/sam-loyd-timeline/

  18. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. (1939 - 1945). Two African American Lieutenants of the Women's Army Corps sitting at a table and working on jigsaw puzzles while three others assist and look on Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-fa0e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

  19. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. (1862). [A man pointing to the Negro seating in the balcony and a man holding a sign titled "Mayor", as a man accompanied by a young boy walk pass him on the street.] Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-e866-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

  20. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. (1908). [An illustration in Following the color line: An account of Negro citizenship in American democracy.] Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-1a46-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

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  22. Taylor, Y., & Austen, J. (2012). Darkest America: Black minstrelsy from slavery to hip-hop. New York: W. W. Norton.

  23. Urofsky, M. I. (2017). Jim Crow law. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law

  24. Young, K. (2012). Wearing the mask: ‘Darkest America,’ by Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen [Review]. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/books/review/darkest-america-by-yuval-taylor-and-jake-austen.html

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