Puzzle Once Owned by Olive C. Hazlett, The Famous and Baffling Checker Board
date: label: date made
content: after 1926
label: date made
content: mid-twentieth century
name: label: maker
content: Vasen Manufacturing Company
notes: label: Description
content: This paper puzzle has fourteen cardboard pieces that can be arranged in different ways to form an 8 x 8 checkerboard. The pieces fit in a cardboard box. Pencil marks on the pieces number them from 1 to 14.
label: Description
content: The lid of the box indicates that there were over seventy-eight different solutions. A sticker on the inside of the lid indicates that 85 solutions were known and that Vasen Industries of Davenport, Iowa would pay $5.00 for any new solution. A mark on the lid of the box reads: THE FAMOUS and BAFFLING (/) CHECKER BOARD (/) PUZZLE (/) 15c. A mark inside the lid reads: THE VASEN MFG. COMPANY (/) Davenport, Iowa
label: Description
content: According to Slocum and Botermans, "The first checkerboard puzzle seems to have originated in 1880, when a certain Henry Luers obtained a U.S. patent for a 'Sectional Checkerboard', consisting of fifteen differently shaped pieces of complete squares of a checkerboard."
label: Description
content: According to newspaper records, the Vasen Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1927. It apparently was still in business in 1964.
label: Description
content: Associated with the mathematician Olive C. Hazlett. For related objects, see acquisitions 1998.0314 and 2015.3004.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Jerry Slocum and Jack Botermans, <I>Puzzles Old and New How to Make and Solve Them</I>, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986, p. 14.
label: Description
content: <I>The Davenport Democrat and Leader</I>, Davenport, Iowa, May 22, 1927, p. 15.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Iowa, Davenport
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Mathematical Recreations
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Women Mathematicians
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Hermitage of St. Joseph
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0027.12
label: accession number
content: 2015.0027
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0027.12
objectType: label: Object Name
content: puzzle
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2.3 cm x 10.6 cm x 10.6 cm; 29/32 in x 4 3/16 in x 4 3/16 in