AUBURN – The Auburn Public Library invites residents to spend an evening with the nation’s foremost jigsaw puzzle expert, Anne D. Williams, as she talks about jigsaw puzzles in America at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, at the library.

Jigsaw puzzles are a timeless activity enjoyed by children and adults alike, especially during Maine’s long, snowy winters. Today’s puzzle enthusiasts love them because they can offer either a solitary challenge, or a social activity with family and friends working together (or against each other) to the finish.

Puzzles from earlier centuries offer a window to the past by depicting events, art, popular culture and technology throughout American history.

New England was the home of some of the earliest puzzle manufacturers. Lewiston and Auburn played a part in that history, with more than a dozen crafters selling and renting their jigsaw puzzles here during the great Puzzle Craze of the early 1930s.

Williams has been doing jigsaw puzzles since childhood. Her interest led her to learn the craft of cutting jigsaw puzzles, then to move on to collecting and researching old ones.

She was featured on PBS’s History Detectives this summer and has curated puzzle exhibitions in Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. The exhibits and her collection have been featured in Smithsonian, Country Home, DownEast, and Yankee magazines, and on the Martha Stewart Living television show.

She is gathering information for a second book about puzzle history, following her book, “Jigsaw Puzzles: an Illustrated History and Price Guide,” published in 1990.