Tangrams made their way to the Americas in the early 19th century aboard trading ships. A now historical set of ivory tangram pieces is thought to have been purchased in Canton, in 1802, by importer Robert Waln, as a gift to one of his children.
Thereafter, in 1816, Captain M. Donnaldson returned from China with a pair of tangram books by author Sang-Hsia-Koi. “The 8th Book of Tan”, by Sam Loyd - the first tangram book to be published in America, in 1903 - was based on the books brought back to America by Donnaldson.
Loyd popularized tangrams by weaving together a fictitious history that to date is often still quoted as factual. In one of his tall tales, Loyd claims that the tangram shapes were created 4,000 years prior by a mythical god named Tan who used them to communicate the story of creation in a set of parchments written in gold. The literary work included over 700 figures, some of which remain a great challenge to solve!