Thomas J. Thorp and Martin Taylor's 1873 Blackboard Patent Model
date: label: Date made
content: 1873-01-21
label: patent date
content: 1873-01-21
name: label: patent holder
content: Thorp, Thomas J.
label: transfer
content: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
label: maker; inventor
content: Thorp, Thomas J.
notes: label: Description
content: This patent model is comprised of two hinged folding blackboards on pole with metal hinges and attachments on top to hold them in place. There is a handle on the bottom and has white knobs on the wooden side of each blackboard which all folds in and stacks together. Patent no. 135019 was issued 1/21/1873 to retired Brevet Brigadier General Thomas Jones Thorp. Martin Taylor of Buffalo, NY. is mentioned in the patent application as having worked with Thorp on the innovations, but he did not sign the form nor the drawing, and Thorp is also the only one listed on the original patent tag. The patent drawing depicts four adjustable, compact blackboards on a pole that intersects like an X. Thorp claimed that the compact blackboard was designed to be used to record lessons that could be retained for weeks or months while the wall affixed blackboard could be used for daily lessons.
label: Description
content: Thomas Jones Thorp was born May 26, 1837, in Granger, New York and died July 26, 1915, in Corvallis, Oregon. He was the son of Bethiah Jones Thorp and Montgomery Thorp and enrolled in the progressive co-ed Alfred Academy 1851-1854 according to an article from the Alfred New York Sun. His name is listed as matriculated in the Alfred University General Catalogue for 1853-1854, the name being changed in 1857 from academy to university. Thorp’s name is also mentioned in the 1861 Harvard University catalogue (which is an early form of yearbook)- perhaps he was taking classes there for a semester, but he was at Union College when the Civil War broke out and received his degree on the field from Union College. In September 1862, he married Mandana Coleman Major, who entertained and nursed the troops during the Civil War. During the Civil War he enlisted in the 85th New York Regiment and served with distinction. He was shot twice, once at Fair Oaks and again at Malvern Hill. As a colonel, he spent some time at Camp Oglethorpe, a Confederate prison for officers near Macon, Georgia but after some provocative speeches he was transferred to Columbia, South Carolina he escaped. After four years, he was honorably discharged. His military exploits leading to his final promotion as Brevet Brigadier General seem to have been well documented. After the military, Thomas Jones Thorp moved his family to a homestead in Selma/Wexford in Northern Michigan to try his hand at farming and to assist his father according to the 1870 census. He returned there for the 1880 census after living in Buffalo, NY. He is listed in numerous city directories. Thorp was a schoolteacher in 1872, promoted in 1873 to principal for Public School #36 Cottage Park in Buffalo, New York under the noted superintendent Dr Thomas Lothrop, and mentioned in professional education journals as well as local Buffalo newspapers of the period. During this period he developed the bulletin board. After working for 5 years for Buffalo city schools he was hired by A. S. Barnes Publishing Company of New York to sell schoolbooks in the Midwest and far west.
label: Description
content: He returned his family for Wexford in 1879 and tried his hand in politics as clerk, registrar, speaker, and a member of the Republican Party. After being defeated for a third term as a county clerk and registrar he tried sheep ranching in Flagstaff, Arizona in the late 1880’s and moved to Chicago in the early 1990s before settling in Oregon in 1893. His other patents include a fence tightener from 1891 (patent 464,207) and a metal spoked wheel in 1909 (patent 912758). He was very involved with the education community while his 2 surviving children, Bessie Maybelle (1877-1941) and Stephen Montgomery (1883-1932) were attending school and Pacific University, Oregon. Apparently he enjoyed being in school administration so much that when he moved to Oregon he served as a principal at the schools of Forest Grove, Woodlawn, Portland, and supposedly a few others.
label: Description
content: Little is known of Taylor who could have been the bookseller.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York
label: associated place
content: United States: New York, Buffalo
topic: label: general subject association
content: Education
label: classified
content: Patent Models
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
label: See more items in
content: Cultures & Communities
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CL.249602.594
label: catalog number
content: 249602.594
label: accession number
content: 249602
label: patent number
content: 135,019
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Blackboard, Collapsible
label: Object Name
content: model
label: Object Name
content: blackboard patent model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 17 1/2 in x 9 in x 8 1/2 in; 44.45 cm x 22.86 cm x 21.59 cm