Findex Filing System
date: label: date made
content: 1920s
name: label: maker
content: Robinson Findex Company
notes: label: Description
content: During the early decades of the twentieth century, Americans experimented with devices that processed data, espcially data on cards. The electrically powered tabulating machines of Herman Hollerith and James Powers came to dominate data tabulation by the U.S. Census. and began to expand into business use as products of the firms of IBM and Remington Rand. At the same time, card files came to play an important role in libraries and museums, particularly through the Library Bureau (another predecessor of Remington Rand). Meanwhile, in Alameda, California, an inventor named Leo Robinson envisioned sorting cards punched with useful information on a relatively small scale, such as might be suited to the personnel offices of a business. His "Findex" system was used in World War I and patented in 1917. In the 1920s, the Southern Teachers Agency in Charlestown, South Carolina, purchased a Findex system to match potential teachers to jobs in independent schools - they would use the system into the 1970s. This is one (of three) bank of oak drawers from their Findex system. In this Findex system, a paper card was filled out on each job candidate registered with the agency. Some categories on each card have overlong punches, indicating skills of a potential teacher. These include level of education, grades taught, subject areas taught, coaching skills, and religion. Further notations handwritten on the card give more information.
label: Description
content: To use the cards, steel rods were inserted in the cards corresponding to desired attributes of a teacher (e.g. someone who could teach voice and band, had a college degree, and could teach in a high school). The drawer with cards was then inverted and the cards corresponding to possible candidates slid down. Further manipulation of rods assured that the cards were fixed in place, the card file turned back up, and the protruding (found) cards examined in more detail.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: The Findex Company, <I>Findex Classification Manual</I>, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1929. A copy of this publication is in the trade literature collection of the Smithsonian Institution Library.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, San Francisco
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Carey Goodman, Southern Teachers Agency
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2024.0014.01
label: catalog number
content: 2024.0014.01
label: accession number
content: 2024.0014
objectType: label: Object Name
content: file cabinet
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood; brass; metal; paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 3/8 in x 41 3/4 in x 17 3/8 in; 28.8925 cm x 106.045 cm x 44.1325 cm