Sheets, Notes on Games, and Stories with Tangrams
date: label: date made
content: 1924-1949
name: label: maker
content: Wheeler, Albert Harry
notes: label: Description
content: Under this number are twelve folders containing groups of sheets describing games and stories by A. Henry Wheeler, a mathematics teacher, some of which are based on tangrams [see 1979.3002.134 for a short description of tangrams].
label: Description
content: Folder 1 includes a handwritten story by Wheeler that is dated April 22, 1929. The story is about “The man who tried to improve Nature.”
label: Description
content: Folder 2 includes eight pages of quotations Wheeler found in 4 books in the series “Wisdom of the East:” <I>The Bustan of Sadi</I>, <I>Yang Chu’s Garden of Pleasure</I>, <I>The Sayings of Lao Tzu</I>, and <I>Musings of a Chinese Mystic</I>, that were published in the early 20th century. Half of these pages have on the other side one of the pages of a six page story, “The Three Wise Fools Go to a Fire” that is dated 7-16-45.
label: Description
content: Folder 3 contains a typescript for a book, Kitty Mu, that Wheeler illustrated with tangrams. The final page is labeled “THE SEVEN CLEVER BLOCKS,” and shows the seven shapes that make up every tangram.
label: Description
content: Folder 4 contains handwritten and typed draft for a book, Some People are Like That, that Wheeler illustrated with tangrams. There are also some typed lists of types of people with handwritten descriptions of transformations tangrams related to that type, e.g. the tangram for The Stubborn Man is transformed form a man to a mule.
label: Description
content: Folder 5 contains a typed description of game 13, On the Farm, a card game created by Wheeler whose cards are illustrated with things found on a farm and small square pieces with a number on each. The game involves bidding on cards. Wheeler noted that one could have described the game in other ways as long as the pieces are all illustrated with the same type of things, e.g. flowers if the game is to be called In My Garden.
label: Description
content: Folder 6 contains tangrams created by Wheeler depicting Noah’s Ark and things found On the Farm, a reference to game 14 that was created by Wheeler.
label: Description
content: In Folder 7 Wheeler describes On the Road, his game 17, as “a board game without a board,” i.e., one that “has a definite design or pattern” that is always used. A typed description indicates that it is a card game with cards made of any shape that will tile the plane, i.e., that will cover it with the plane with no overlaps or holes, e.g. rectangles and regular hexagons. The cards have holes and on then are written numbers and words that are associated with driving, “CONSTRUCTION, DO NOT PASS, RED LIGHT, etc.” There are instructions as well as unfinished handwritten descriptions dated in May 1942.
label: Description
content: Folder 8 contains notes on game 21 created by Wheeler, Last Round-up. These are dated Nov. 30, 1946. There is also a typed set of instruction that indicates how tokens, which represent cattle, move from the center of a large circle to a small circle marked OUT.
label: Description
content: Folder 9 contains a handwritten description of Wheeler’s game 22, Flying Horses, that is dated Dec 2, 1946 and Feb 22, 1947. Another small card, which is dated Nov 14, 1947, includes instructions and a hand drawn diagram.
label: Description
content: Folder 10 includes a typed description of Wheeler’s game 24, SCORIT, that indicates that it is played on a board with pieces that include numbers that run from 1 to 9. The object of the game is place pieces in order to “build a SCORE,” i.e., so the sum of the numbers on a line will equal exactly 20. As this game is not dated, it may be that a version of the board is in 1979.3002.132, Games, Prototype – 1945-1948
label: Description
content: Folder 11 contains two typed description of Wheeler’s game 26, Radar, along with several hand written descriptions dated from Oct 9, 1945, through Oct 25, 1945. The earliest of these also includes diagrams that are more detailed than the two small ones on the typed descriptions. There are spinners that represent radar and descriptions that give rules for “taking” planes where the object of the game is to “take” as many as possible.
label: Description
content: Folder 12 includes tangrams that illustrate Wheelers story, The Good Snake, that is labeled his game 50. The tangrams include those of a man, a horse, a dog, and a snake as well as transitions from the man to the horse, the horse to the dog, and the dog to the snake.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Louise D. Campbell
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.3002.131
label: catalog number
content: 1979.3002.131
label: nonaccession number
content: 1979.3002
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Sheets, Group of
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: tan (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 7 cm x 30 cm x 20 cm; 2 3/4 in x 11 13/16 in x 7 7/8 in