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Your search found 79 records from all Smithsonian Institution collections.
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- Description
- From the 1950s, particularly after the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1958, American mathematicians and mathematics educators introduced a variety of reforms in mathematics teaching dubbed “The New Math.” This set of flash cards reflects the way of presenting subtraction problems that emerged.
- The set consists of fifty cards, printed with subtraction problems on each side. The problems are written crosswise, with a box for the answer. The solution is printed in red in the upper left corner on the back. Another card lists basic subtraction facts (vertically), and three cards give work sheets and directions.
- A mark on the paper box reads: MILTON BRADLEY (/) NEW MATH (/) FLASH CARDS (/) SUBTRACTION. Another mark reads: [copyright] 1965. A third mark reads: 4592.
- These and several other sets of flash cards were donated by elementary school teacher Marjorie A. Naidorf.
- Compare 2005.0055.06, 2005.0055.07, 2005.0055.08, and 2005.0055.09.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1965
- maker
- Milton Bradley Company
- ID Number
- 2005.0055.06
- catalog number
- 2005.0055.06
- accession number
- 2005.0055
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- Description
- This wooden model shows three cubes intersecting orthoganally.
- A typed tag reads: 95. Another mark reads: Lois M. Parker (/) 4-22-38.
- Compare models 1979.0102.042, 1979.0102.043, and 1979.0102.252.
- Lois M. Parker (1920-2004) was a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, whose father was an insurance agent. She took a high school course with A. Harry Wheeler in 1938. She went on to attend Colby Junior College in New London, New Hampshire, and then obtained bachelor and master’s degrees in music from the University of Michigan. Parker returned to Worcester, where she taught music at South High school for thirty years.
- For models by Parker, see 1979.0102.040, 1979.0102.046, and 1979.0102.048.
- Reference:
- Census, graveyard, and yearbook records from ancestry.com.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1938
- Maker
- Lois M. Parker
- ID Number
- 1979.0102.040
- accession number
- 1979.0102
- catalog number
- 1979.0102.040
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- Description
- Robinson’s Progressive Primary Arithmetic for Primary Classes in Public and Private Schools is part of Robinson’s Series of Mathematics, and contains simple lessons for young children on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and fractions. The lessons consist largely of word and practical problems, some with illustrations on currency and measurements. The book is 80 pages, with a tan front cover has a black and white illustration of a girl reading and a boy playing with numbered cards, while their mother watches over them. The back cover lists other textbooks in the American Educational Series for "schools and colleges" by the same publisher. This book is inscribed presubably by the student in script inside front cover and title page "Luella May Weirick." in graphite and ink. Additional marks throughout text such as the name Carrie Jane Hoffman on the top of page 44. There is also a partial legible inscription inside back cover about Kissing Mr...
- The creator of this series is Horatio Nelson Robinson (1806-1867), mathematician. He attended common school as a child; at 16 he developed astronomical calculations for an almanac. He attended the College of New Jersey at Princeton at age 19, and then became a professor of mathematics at the Naval Academy. Robinson wrote his first math textbook in 1847 and followed it up with numerous other textbooks. He received an honorary A.M. degree from the College of New Jersey at Princeton in 1836.
- Daniel W. Fish (1820-1899) was the prolific editor of this text, and numerous others on arithmetic for primary school students and teachers alike.
- This volume was published by Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co. in 1873. Founder Henry Ivison (1808-1884) was one of the pioneers of the schoolbook industry in America. The business he established in New York City grew and prospered under several partnerships, with the name of Ivison always at the head of the firm. Intense competition in the American textbook industry caused several of the leading publishing houses to join forces. In 1890, the consolidation of Ivison, Blakeman and Co., Van Antwerp, Bragg and Co., A.S. Barnes & Co., and D. Appleton and Co. resulted in the creation of a new corporation known as the American Book Company.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- ID Number
- DL.62.0299B
- catalog number
- 62.0299B
- accession number
- 240815
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- Description
- The advent of the graphing calculator and the personal computer transformed the way many students in the United States learned mathematics. In 1989, the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, assumed that all students in grades nine through twelve would have access to a graphing calculator. Franklin Demana and Bert K. Waits of The Ohio State University had been interested in the use of graphing calculators in mathematics education since for some years. In 1990, they published this textbook for high school use.
- Reference:
- P. A. Kidwell, A. Ackerberg-Hastings, and David L. Roberts, Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1990
- maker
- Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
- ID Number
- 2000.3037.04
- nonaccession number
- 2000.3037
- catalog number
- 2000.3037.04
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- Description
- This workbook by Catherine Stern describes the use of her apparatus. This spiral-bound teacher's edition was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1952.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1952
- maker
- Stern, Catherine
- ID Number
- 2005.3100.11
- catalog number
- 2005.3100.11
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3100
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- Description
- The concept of Kindergarten was developed in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), a student of Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Froebel’s German kindergartens encouraged children to enjoy natural studies, music, stories, play with manipulative learning toys. He recommended teachers use geometric shapes and crafts for teaching and advocated the use of ‘gifts’ or playthings in the form of geometric shapes to promote learning and occupations or activities. Froebel also incorporated learning through expression, systematized play and social imitation. The first kindergarten opened in Germany in 1837; the first in the US was opened by Margarethe Schurz to a German speaking community in Wisconsin in 1856. In 1860, Elizabeth Peabody opened the first English speaking kindergarten in Boston. Over time, kindergarten was introduced into public schools with the changed purpose of providing an early academic foundation for 5 and 6-year old children preparing for 1st grade.
- This cherry wood box at one time contained the fourth “gift” in the series manufactured by the Milton Bradley Company. The container is a small, square varnished cherry wood box with a removable sliding top and a slightly faded dark blue label on one side. This box however is missing all its wood blocks. They may have been put away after play in the enlarged Gift 6 box which appears to have more than it should of this size blocks.
- Milton Bradley Company was established in 1860 by Milton Bradley (1836-1911). A mechanical draughtsman and patent agent interested in lithography, board games and puzzles, Milton Bradley became interested in the kindergarten movement after he attended a lecture by Elizabeth Peabody in 1869. Elizabeth and her sister Mary, who was by then the widow of educator Horace Mann, were devoted to promoting Froebel’s philosophy of creative play for pre-school children and helped spread of the Kindergarten Movement to America’s cities. These “gift boxes” are examples of school equipment made by Milton Bradley sometime between 1880 to 1900 for use in kindergartens. Milton Bradley produced educational materials free of charge for the kindergartens in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts and was committed to developing kindergarten educational materials such as these gifts, colored papers and paints.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880-1900
- maker
- Milton Bradley Company
- ID Number
- 2014.0244.373
- accession number
- 2014.0244
- catalog number
- 2014.0244.373
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- Description
- Documentation received with Catherine Stern's apparatus for teaching arithmetic suggests how her ideas changed over time. This colorful publication from 1965 describes a relatively late version of her teaching apparatus, as sold by Houghton Mifflin. Some exercises in the workbook have been completed. Stern's coauthors were Margaret B. Stern and Toni S. Gould.
- For Stern's apparatus, see 2005.0229.01 and 2005.0229.02. For closely related books, see 2005.3100.06 and 2005.3100.08.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965
- maker
- Stern, Catherine
- Stern, Margaret B.
- Gould, Toni S.
- ID Number
- 2005.3100.04
- catalog number
- 2005.3100.04
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3100
-
- Description
- During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States. This small paperbound book by Cuisenaire and Gattegno first appeared in 1954, was in its third edition by 1958, and was reprinted frequently in the next few years. This is a 1961 printing.
- For a set of Cuisenaire rods and further information about the donor of the materials, see 1987.0542.01. For related documentation see 1987.0542.02 through 1987.0542.07.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1961
- maker
- Cuisenaire, G.
- ID Number
- 1987.0542.02
- accession number
- 1987.0542
- catalog number
- 1987.0542.02
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- Description
- This tan paper cut and folded model consists of twelve equilateral triangles. The pieces can be folded to form a regular octahedron. Circular arcs are indicated in pencil next to many edges
- An inscription in pencil on one side reads: Agda Carlson (/) Jan-26-1915. An inscription on the inside (as folded) reads: Original Model.
- Agda Carlson (1896-1980) was the Massachusetts-born daughter of Swedish immigrants to the United States. Yearbook records from the Old English High School and New High School of Commerce in Worcester, Massachsetts, for 1915 indicate that she planned to work in a hospital after graduating that year. However, subsequent Census records indicate that she continued to live with her parents and worked in Worcester as a dressmaker (1920) and a lace maker in a factory (1930). She is listed in later Worcester city directories as a “designer.”
- References:
- Aftermath [Yearbook of Old English High School and New High School of Commerce], 1915 gives a picture of Carlson as a high school senior. This, as well as Census, city directory, and burial records have been consulted on ancestry.com.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1915 01 26
- maker's teacher
- Wheeler, Albert Harry
- maker
- Carlson, Agda
- ID Number
- MA.304723.701
- accession number
- 304723
- catalog number
- 304723.701
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- Description
- During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States. This small paperback, Book C of Gattegno’s explanation, was copyrighted in 1958 and 1961.
- For a set of Cuisenaire rods, see 1987.0542.01. For related documentation see 1987.0542.02 through 1987.0542.07.
- For further information about the donor of the materials, see 1987.0542.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1961
- maker
- Gattegno, Caleb
- ID Number
- 1987.0542.04
- accession number
- 1987.0542
- catalog number
- 1987.0542.04
-
- Description
- Greenleaf’s New Primary Arithmetic, Embracing Mental and Written Exercises, For Beginners is designed to introduce analytical reasoning and the fundamentals of arithmetic to primary school students. Each lesson plan is centered on everyday objects and activities and incorporates related illustrations. The book has 104 pages. The green front cover depicts a 19th Century schoolboy reclining in a meadow while practicing his arithmetic lessons. The pastoral scene includes a house and church steeple in the background. The rear cover lists the names of other texts in the Greenleaf’s Series. The inside front cover page contains a handwritten inscription by the owner: “Grace M. Hackett,/ Shurborough,/ Vermont,/ 1889.”
- Benjamin Greenleaf (1786-1864) was a prominent American educator and author. He graduated from Dartmouth with an M.A. in 1813. He served as the Preceptor of Bradford Academy in Vermont. Greenleaf was a celebrated writer of early mathematics textbooks. He also served in the Massachusetts state legislature from 1837-1839.
- Leech, Shewell and Sanborn, based in Boston, was a distinguished 19th Century publisher of textbooks, atlases, and literary works.
- date made
- circa 1880
- maker
- Greenleaf, Benjamin
- Leach Shewell and Sanborn
- ID Number
- 2017.3049.38
- nonaccession number
- 2017.3049
- catalog number
- 2017.3049.38
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- Description
- From at least the nineteenth century, educators have thought that playing with specially designed blocks would give children a tangible sense of mathematical relationships. The San Diego, California, teacher Ethel Dummer Mintzer (1895-1938) designed this set of flat wooden blocks to give young children the experience of handling a few of the simplest geometrical shapes. A complete set would include one hundred forty-four blocks – right isosceles triangles in five sizes, squares in three sizes, rectangles in six sizes, and parallelograms in three sizes. Eighteen blocks are missing from this set. The blocks are arranged in two layers on specially printed square sheets of paper and stored in a box with two bases and two lids.
- Also in the box are sixteen square paper sheets describing suggested uses of the blocks. Ideas include making patterns from given sets of blocks, representing equal fractions, rearranging blocks to form figures of equal area, and defining areas. Other sheets concern the Pythagorean theorem, a binomial expansion, and multiplying fractions. A mark on the first sheet reads: Copyright, 1933. Ethel Dummer Mintzer.
- Mintzer named her blocks after Mary Everest Boole (1832-1916), a British educator also known as the wife of the logician George Boole and the mother of the geometer Alicia Boole Stott. A mark on the lids of the boxes reads: Boole Senior Blocks. Another mark reads: PATENT APPLIED FOR.
- This particular set of blocks belonged to Carol B. McCamman, who taught mathematics at Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C. A sticker on one of the lids reads: CAROL V. McCAMMAN (/) 1901 Wyoming Ave., N.W., #54 (/) Washington, D. C. 20009.
- The donor, Florence Fasanelli, taught mathematics at Sidwell Friends School in Washington. She was president of the D.C. Council of Teachers and McCamman a member. McCamman gave Fasanelli the Boole blocks in 1974 as a baby present for her daughter Antonia. Fasanelli believes McCamman may have received the blocks from Ethel Sturges Dummer (1866-1954), the mother of Ethel Dummer Mintzer. Dummer was a noted Chicago philanthropist, and an advocate of the use of Boole blocks.
- It is not clear who actually manufactured the Boole blocks and for how long. Boole Blocks Senior are advertised with a variety of other wooden toys in a 1934 catalog of Holgate Brothers Company of Kane, Pennsylvania.
- References:
- Accession file.
- Caroline Cushman Rockwell, The Holgate Play Year, Kane, Pa: Holgate Brothers Company, 1934, p. 13.
- Karen Dee Ann Michalowicz, "Mary Everest Boole (1832-1916): An Erstwhile Pedagogist for Contemporary Times," Vita Mathematica, ed. Ronald Calinger, Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1996, pp. 291—299.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1935
- ID Number
- 2016.0153.01
- accession number
- 2016.0153
- catalog number
- 2016.0153.01
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- Description
- Guy T. Buswell and Lenore John published this chart in about 1925 through the Public School Publishing Company of Bloomington, Illinois. The entire package included directions, a pupil's work sheet, a teacher's diagnostic chart, and a pupil's work sheet diagnostic chart. This is the teacher’s diagnostic chart. It was coauthored by Lenore John (1902-1992) when she was a graduate student in education at the University of Chicago.
- John was the granddaughter, daughter and niece of ministers in the United Brethren Church. Born in Pennsylvania, she moved about with her family as her father, Lewis Franklin John, took various clerical and faculty positions. One of these was at York College in York, Nebraska. Lenore John enrolled in the college and took courses in education, graduating in 1921. She taught high school mathematics in Nebraska and Wisconsin. By about 1927, she was teaching mathematics at the University of Chicago’s Laboratory School and doing graduate work in education. In 1926, she assisted Guy T. Buswell (1891-1994), another York College graduate and child of a United Brethren minister. Buswell was a faculty member in the Education Department at Chicago, They prepared a Diagnostic Chart for Fundamental Processes in Arithmetic, of which this is an example. The Buswell-John chart, as it came to be called by some, remained in use for decades. Buswell and John hoped that their chart would be used to determine the areas of arithmetic in which a student required further work. It was a'diagnosis" of problems rather than a prognosis of future achievement. In later years Buswell and John collaborted on a series of arithmetic textbooks.
- John went on to completer her MA dissertation at Chicago in 1927, and remained on the staff of the Laboratory School, continuing her research in mathematics education. She would serve as vice-president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics from 1950-1952. In the 1960s, she played an active role in work of one of the “new math” programs, the School Mathematics Study Group. She received an award from the Illinois branch of the NCTM (the ICTM) as late as 1967, and died in Chicago in 1992.
- This example of the test is from the personal collection of U. S. government psychologist and university teacher in education Samuel Kavruck.
- For a related object, the pupil's worksheet, see 1990.0034.07
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1925
- maker
- John, Lenore
- Buswell, G. T.
- publisher
- Public School Publishing Company
- maker
- John, Lenore
- ID Number
- 1990.0034.164
- catalog number
- 1990.0034.164
- accession number
- 1990.0034
-
- Description
- This dry erase whiteboard, made of a fiberboard backing with a white hard plastic coating, was used by the donor when teaching mathematics at the Greens Farms Elementary School in Westport, Connecticut.
- Associated with 2019.0156.02 and .03
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 2010
- ID Number
- 2019.0156.01
- accession number
- 2019.0156
- catalog number
- 2019.0156.01
-
- Description
- Many students in preschools and elementary schools learn about simple geometry using geoboards. Wooden boards with a regular array of nails pounded into them have been used to teach about shapes, angles, and number patterns from at least 1954, when the Egyptian-born English educator Caleb Gattegno published an article about the geoboard. By 1970, geoboards had reached the United States and were recommended for teaching a wide range of mathematical topics. By the 1990s, most geoboards sold were plastic and were specifically intended for use by young children. This example has a 5 x 5 square array of pegs on one side. On the other side is a circle of twelve pegs, as well as a central peg and a peg near each corner. There is no maker's mark. The object was one of a set of seven geoboards that sold with activity cards, rubber bands, and teaching notes for $39.95. It was used in a first grade classroom at Long Lots School in Westport, Connecticut, by teacher Carin Pfeiffer.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1997
- ID Number
- 2000.0010.01
- accession number
- 2000.0010
- catalog number
- 2000.0010.01
-
- Description
- During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States. This small paperback, Book D of Gattegno’s explanation, was copyrighted in 1958 and 1961.
- For a set of Cuisenaire rods, see 1987.0542.01. For related documentation see 1987.0542.02 through 1987.0542.07.
- For further information about the donor of the materials, see 1987.0542.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1961
- maker
- Gattegno, Caleb
- ID Number
- 1987.0542.05
- accession number
- 1987.0542
- catalog number
- 1987.0542.05
-
- Description
- Careful study often indicated improved ways of using adding machines. For example, Comptometer operators were trained to use only the first five (lower) keys of a Comptometer. It was quicker to push a “4” key and a “5” key than to reach up and push a “9” key. This device assisted in training. It has a green plastic base with a 5x5 keyboard. The key stems and keyboard are metal, while the keys and base are plastic. The keys are alternately concave (odd digits) and flat (even digits). There is no mechanism. The device is marked: COMPTOMETER (/) EDUCATOR (/) A FELT AND TARRANT PRODUCT.
- Aprivately owned undated brochure for the Comptometer Educator uses some of the same photographs as a 1954 training manual for Comptometer operators, hence the date assigned. For the 1954 training manual, see 1994.3060.008.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1955
- maker
- Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1989.0325.05
- catalog number
- 1989.0325.05
- accession number
- 1989.0325
-
- Description
- From the 1950s, particularly after the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite in 1958, American mathematicians and mathematics educators introduced a variety of reforms in mathematics teaching that went under the name “The New Math.” This set of flash cards reflects the way of presenting addition problems that emerged.
- The set includes 50 cards showing sums of one digit numbers. A sum is written out horizontally on each side of each card. The sides are numbered from 1 to 50 on one side and from 50 to 100 on the other. A "sliding number cover" fits over a card to cover one term in the "number sentence." The child is to figure out the answer. A window in the back of the cover reveals the correct answer written on the back of the card. In addition to these cards, there is a card listing "Basic Addition Facts" (written vertically, with answers) and "Basic Addition Combinations" (written vertically, without answers). Four cards give tips and instructions for teachers and parents.
- A mark on the top of the box reads: NEW MATH (/) ADDITION (/) FLASH CARDS. A second mark reads: ED-U-CARDS. Another mark reads: [copyright]1966 ED-U-CARDS MFG. CORP., L.I.C., N.Y.
- Compare 2005.0055.06, 2005.0055.07, 2005.0055.08, and 2005.0055.09.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1966
- maker
- Ed-U-Cards Manufacturing Corporation
- ID Number
- 2005.0055.08
- catalog number
- 2005.0055.08
- accession number
- 2005.0055
-
- Description
- From the 1950s, particularly after the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1958, American mathematicians and mathematics educators introduced a variety of reforms in mathematics teaching dubbed “The New Math.” This set of flash cards reflects the way of presenting addition and subtraction problems that emerged.
- The set consists of flash cards showing sums written out horizontally on one side and differences written out horizontally on the other. A blank square indicates where the answer is to go. The cards are numbered from 1 to 81, with several missing and some duplicates. One unnumbered card may be card one. The cards are cut off at one corner, like punch cards. Another card lists on one side "Basic Addition Facts" for sums as large as 9 + 9, and "Basic Subtraction Facts" on the reverse side. Two further cards provide explanation.
- An explanation card for a similar set of flash cards for teaching multiplication and division is included, but none of these cards. Seven further cards, apparently from another set, give sums and differences written vertically.
- A mark on the cardboard box holding the cards reads: MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY (/) SPRINGFIELD (/) MASSACHUSETTS. Another mark reads: NEW MATH(/)FLASH CARDS. Another mark reads: ADDITION-SUBTRACTION. A further mark reads: [copyright] 1965. The set has the maker’s number: 7020.
- Compare 2005.0055.06, 2005.0055.07, 2005.0055.08, and 2005.0055.09.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1965
- date received
- 2003
- maker
- Milton Bradley Company
- ID Number
- 2005.0055.07
- catalog number
- 2005.0055.07
- accession number
- 2005.0055
-
- Description
- Documentation received with Catherine Stern's apparatus for teaching arithmetic suggests how her ideas changed over time. This colorful publication from 1965 describes a relatively late version of her teaching apparatus, as sold by Houghton Mifflin. Some exercises in the workbook have been completed. Stern's coauthors were Margaret B. Stern and Toni S. Gould.
- For Stern's apparatus, see 2005.0229.01 and 2005.0229.02. For closely related books, see 2005.3100.04 and 2005.3100.08.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965
- maker
- Stern, Catherine
- Stern, Margaret B.
- Gould, Toni S.
- ID Number
- 2005.3100.06
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3100
- catalog number
- 2005.3100.06
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