Keith Haring: Double Retrospect Puzzle

Cold, snowy days often mean gathering around the dining room table to work on a jigsaw puzzle. A recent donation to the historical society by Ned Parkes is the ultimate in jigsaw puzzles and would require many snow storms to complete! The Keith Haring: Double Retrospect puzzle by Ravensperger is 32,256 pieces. Fully built it measures 17.8’long x 6’ high. When the puzzle was released in 2011, it held the Guiness World Book record for largest jigsaw puzzle ever made. So large, in fact, it comes with its own dolly to transport the box! Since then, Ravenspurger and others have pushed that limit, creating several other puzzles of 40-50,000 pieces. The current commercially available record holder is a world map of 60,000 pieces and measures 29’ long x 8’ high manufactured by Dowdle in 2022. However, the Guiness record for largest puzzle – most pieces, is held by students of the students of the University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In 2011 they pieced together a puzzle measuring 48 ft 8.64 in × 76 ft 1.38 in, made up of 551,232 pieces! The subject matter is what makes this puzzle of interest to the society. Keith Haring was, as many know, a native of Kutztown and an internationally recognized artist. We are proud to house several original drawings on the chalk boards of the meeting room, drawn by Keith in 1982. The society is currently planning a few events celebrating the artist later this year. The donation of this puzzle came at a perfect time and we hope to incorporate it into the events in some way. How exciting would it be to build the entire puzzle for display? Stay tuned for news!

Jigsaw puzzles have a long history of entertaining children and adults alike. The invention is often attributed to John Spilsbury, a cartographer who, in the 1760’s, glued paper maps to wooden boards and cut them into pieces to use as a hands-on tool to teach geography to children. Some interesting facts about jigsaw puzzles:

▪ The earliest puzzles were made from wood, either painted with pictures or with paper images glued to the boards.

▪ The term “jigsaw” was added later in the 1880’s when the fretsaw or jigsaw, with a long narrow blade, became the tool of choice to cut the intricate shapes.

▪ A “Whimsy piece” is a puzzle piece cut into a unique shape such as a cat or truck. These pieces began in the Victorian era and were cut at the whim of the puzzle maker, thus giving them their name.

▪ The introduction of die-cut cardboard puzzles in the early 20th century made puzzles more affordable and accessible to the general public.