'This is the house that Jack built' first appeared in print in 1755 in Nurse Truelove's New-Year's-Gift ... published by John Newbery. Its origins are certainly older than that, but the details are a matter of dispute. It is a nursery rhyme on the principle of accumulation, with an additional rhyme being added to each verse.

It became a popular rhyme for reproduction by numerous publishers, in particular in the 18th and early 19th centuries by the chapbook publishers. In 1820 John Harris published an edition with 16 coloured illustrations, which was re-issued by successors Grant and Griffith in 1846: this edition. In the late 19th century it was illustrated by Walter Crane and, most famously, by Randolph Caldecott.

This copy was given to Catherine Simpson 'a birthday gift from her dear Papa, 1846'.

Simpson, Catherine

Carpenter, Humphrey. The Oxford companion to children's literature, Oxford [Oxfordshire]; New York: Oxford University Press, 1984 [p. 262 House that Jack built]

Opie, Iona and Peter (eds.) The Oxford dictionary of nursery rhymes, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980, c1951

Thwaite, M. F. From primer to pleasure in reading: an introduction to the history of children's books in England from the invention of printing to 1914, with an outline of some developments in other countries, London: Library Association, 1972

Internet Archive. The history of the house that Jack built: adorned with cuts To view a chapbook version of the nursery rhyme

New York Times: Archives. Antiquity of the House that Jack built