Neatly Dissected: For the Instruction of Young Ladies and Gentlemen in the Knowledge of Geography: John Spilsbury and Early Dissected Puzzles (Cotsen Children's Library Publication)

Also available in softcover version (ISBN 978-0-9666084-1-0).John Spilsbury, who styled himself an "Engraver and Map Dissector in Wood, in Order to Facilitate the Teaching of Geography," is credited with the invention of "dissected maps" / hand-colored maps, printed from copper plates, which were mounted on thin sheets of mahogany and cut into pieces according to the political borders of the region mapped. The discovery of an extraordinary set of five of John Spilsbury's dissected puzzles, and its acquisition by the Cotsen Children's Library (Los Angeles) has provided a valuable opportunity to reassess Spilsbury's intention and the place of dissected puzzles and other geographical pastimes in the history of education in eighteenth-century Britain. This study of the context in which these puzzles first appeared reveals the extent of the links between the children's book and map trades in 18th-century London, and sheds new light on the history of progressive British education during that time.