P.O. Box 1635
Beverly Hills, CA 90213
The Slocum Puzzle Foundation was established on August 10, 1993 as a nonprofit public benefit Corporation. It was approved by the State of California and the U.S. Government as a charitable and educational Foundation. The purpose of the Foundation is to educate the public on puzzles, their history, development, and use in various cultures of the world. The Foundation will actively support the use of puzzles for education. The Foundation will educate the public on puzzles through:
The first project of the Foundation was to support a Maze and Puzzle exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois. A large "people maze" and eighty hands-on puzzles challenged visitors to solve all types of mechanical puzzles. Hint books with each puzzle were available to help. Twenty-one cases exhibited 640 mechanical puzzles from the Slocum Collection of all types and ages. The exhibition was open from May 26, 1994 to September 5, 1994. Jerry Slocum was the Curator of the puzzle exhibition. Three quarters of a million people enjoyed the exhibition.
The Second edition of the Directory was the first publication of the Slocum Puzzle Foundation. The Third Edition was published January 1997 and included almost 300 puzzle collectors and over 300 retail stores and mail order sellers.
The Third Edition of the Compendium of Checkerboard Puzzles was published by the Foundation in August 1997. It includes 376 Checkerboard puzzles with solutions, illustrations and historical information for each puzzle.
The History of Puzzles Series was launched in August with the publication of Puzzles from Catel’s Cabinet and Bestelmeier’s Magazine 1785 to 1823. Almost 100 puzzles from 200 years ago are included. The puzzles are illustrated and translations of the original German descriptions are included. Many puzzles, including burrs, appeared for the first time in these catalogs.
A grant has been given to the Brooklyn Museum of Art as seed money for research leading to an exhibition of the hundreds of mechanical puzzles collected by Stewart Culin for the Museum during the nineteenth century. The research and exhibition will be performed by the students in the New York City Museum School as part of their studies.
The Slocum Puzzle Collection is being donated to Indiana University's Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana. So far over 24,000 puzzles have been sent to the Lilly Library and since 2006 they are available for viewing and research by the public 6 days a week in The Slocum Puzzle Room shown in the photo below.
More than 24,000 Slocum Puzzles at the Lilly Library are now available online with photos and data about each puzzle here. More puzzles are being donated each year until it has the entire collection of more than 33,000 puzzles, 5,000 books and all of the Slocum Puzzle Research files. Many of these articles and files are already available at the Lilly Library here.
Plan a visit to the Lilly Library and see antique, old and modern puzzle and try to solve some of them yourself!
Jerry Slocum, President
The Slocum Puzzle Foundation
257 South Palm Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Email: 