Puzzles to make you pause

Spring break, reading week, study break – whatever it means to you, it’s important to take a pause from assignments, deadlines, and Zoom meetings. With no formal academic activities scheduled during the first week of March, this is YOUR time to rest and relax.

We’ve put together some colourful puzzles to help you get into the groove. Click on the hyperlinks to work on the puzzle from the Jigsaw Explorer website or solve them one piece at a time on the versions embedded in this blog. Choose the number of puzzle pieces you want to work with by pressing the nine square icon in the centre of the puzzle, and then rotate, drag and drop pieces into place to make these puzzles come alive.

If you’re looking for more (fun!) resources related to health & wellness including, check out the Library’s dedicated webpage.


Arthur Lismer, B.C. Fishing Harbour, 1956, Oil on canvas, 69 x 79 cm. Gift of Mrs. William J. McCarney. McGill Visual Arts Collection, 1996-013.

British-Canadian painter Arthur Lismer (1885-1969) was one of the original members of the Group of Seven, a collective of painters of the early twentieth century which sought to give a distinctive national voice to Canadian painting. Lismer taught at the McGill School of Architecture from 1943 to 1955. The Visual Arts Collection holds a number of landscapes, portraits, and sketches by him.

Work on the above puzzle here or tackle the embedded version below.


Miniature of a princess smoking a hookah on terrace. Mughal, India : producer not identified, between 1850 and 1875. Islamic Studies Library.

McGill’s Persian collection has a history that pre-dates the founding of the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) and the Islamic studies Library (ISL) in 1952. By the 1930s, the collection already included several hundred manuscripts, orphaned leaves and lithographs. To learn more about this collection, visit “The Persianate Heritage: Hidden Treasures from McGill’s Collections” digital exhibition. Work on the above puzzle here or tackle the embedded version below.


Drawing of blue-fronted Amazon by Chalres Collins, 1740. Rare Books & Special Collections
Drawing of blue-fronted Amazon by Charles Collins, 1740. Rare Books & Special Collections.

For almost forty years from the mid-1730s until his death in 1772, the British jurist and naturalist Taylor White commissioned paintings of birds and beasts from the best animal painters of the day. Unpublished in his lifetime, White’s “paper museum” was preserved by the family until acquired by Dr. Casey Wood in 1927 for the Blacker Wood Collection at McGill University. Visit digital exhibition or archival collections catalogue to access more works from this collection. Work on the above puzzle here or use the embedded version below.


Vérités! : chanson / paroles et musique de E. Ouvrard. Paris : Emile Benoit, 1895. 19th Century French Sheet Music Collection. Marvin Duchow Music Library.

Love this cover illustration? The digital exhibition “Women, Work, and Song in Nineteenth-Century France” explores both women’s work and the cultural work about women in the popular song industry, drawing on a selection of pieces from the 19th-Century French Sheet Music Collection at the Marvin Duchow Music Library. Work on the above puzzle here or tackle the embedded version below.


Advertisement for Aspirin featuring paper cut-outs for children of an Alsatian town, which includes a pharmacy. Usine du Rhône, l’Alsace [Aspirin advertisement], ca 1925. Osler Library of the History of Medicine.

Access the Osler Library Prints Collection to explore a rich variety of visual documents related to the history of medicine, spanning several centuries, countries, and artistic media. Work on the above puzzle here or tackle the embedded version below.


The Redpath Library (now Redpath Hall). Old McGill Yearbook, 1925.
The Redpath Library (now Redpath Hall). Sketch by A. Leslie Perry, Old McGill Yearbook, 1924. McGill University Archives.

Explore campus life from 1898-2000 via our digitized collection of Old McGill Yearbooks. Work on the above puzzle here or tackle the embedded version below.

Leave a Reply

Library Matters seeks to exchange and encourage ideas, innovations and information from McGill Library staff for our on-campus readers and beyond.

Contact Us!

If you have any questions, comments, or even an idea for a story, let us know!