Slate Pencils, Box of 5
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
notes: label: Description
content: These five slate pencils are wrapped in paper decorated like the American flag and stored in a cardboard box with an American flag design. In the 19th century, schoolchildren used pencils made from a soft stone or slate to write letters and numbers on their slates, personal-sized blackboards. Students wiped away their work after it was checked by the teacher; reusable slates were thus less expensive than large quantities of paper, and slate pencils were generally more available than chalk. In the United States, slate pencils were manufactured at least as early as 1844 and at least as late as the 1910s.
label: Description
content: Edith R. Meggers of Washington, D.C., bequeathed this box of pencils to the Smithsonian in 1974. The dates of other objects in her bequest suggest these pencils were made around 1900. Meggers worked in the Building Technology Division of the National Bureau of Standards in the 1950s and 1960s. She and her husband endowed the William F. and Edith R. Meggers Project Award of the American Institute of Physics, which funds projects for the improvement of high-school physics teaching in the United States.
label: Description
content: References: Early Office Museum, "History of the Lead Pencil," http://www.officemuseum.com/pencil_history.htm; Peter Davies, "Writing Slates and Schooling," <i>Australasian Historical Archaeology</i> 23 (2005): 63–69; Charlotte E. Moore, "Meggers, William Frederick," <i>Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography</i> (2008), http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830902894.html; Edith R. Meggers, <i>Selected Bibliography on Building Construction and Maintenance</i>, 3rd ed., National Bureau of Standards Building Materials and Structures Report 140 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1959).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Education
label: Subject
content: writing implements
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Pens and Pencils
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Edith R. Meggers
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335277
label: accession number
content: 314637
label: catalog number
content: 335277
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pencils, group of 5
label: Object Name
content: pencils
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: slate (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cardboard (box material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 cm x 3.6 cm x 15 cm; 13/32 in x 1 13/32 in x 5 29/32 in